MONDAY: Fox News, DOJ make it official!

MONDAY, JULY 21, 2025

The current state of play: Just a bit over a month ago, Tulsi Gabbard seemed to have fallen from favor with the commander in chief.

According to most reports, she had made an accurate statement during testimony before a Senate committee. Inevitably, this annoyed the commander in chief, or so said NBC News in this June 18 report:

Tulsi Gabbard sidelined in Trump administration discussions on Israel and Iran

National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, an outspoken critic of past U.S. military interventions abroad, appears to have fallen out of favor with President Donald Trump as he weighs military action against Iran, according to multiple senior administration officials with knowledge of the matter.

Gabbard allies insist that, while there is some White House tension, some of the public blowback is overstated, and none interviewed by NBC News expect her to leave the administration as a result of the president’s Iran policy, even if that includes direct U.S. involvement.

Gabbard’s politically perilous position burst into the open this week when Trump brushed her back over her testimony to Congress in March. At that time, she said the U.S. intelligence community did not believe Iran was building a nuclear weapon—a comment at odds with Trump’s recent public statement about the threat posed by Iran’s potential nuclear program.

“I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one,” Trump told reporters Tuesday on Air Force One.

As far as we know, her testimony in March had been accurate. Inevitably, that now seemed to have the Hawaiian out in the cold!

All in all, whatever! Meanwhile, we're going to guess that Director Gabbard may be in fuller favor today. Or then again, possibly not—how's a mere person to know?

For the record, Gabbard has passed an extremely hot potato on to Attorney General Bondi. Fox News digital has made the whole thing official today, and so has the Justice Department.

Just to establish the record, here's the start of the Fox News report concerning the state of play:

DOJ receives Gabbard's criminal referral on bombshell claims Obama admin 'manufactured' Russian collusion hoax

The Department of Justice confirmed Monday that it has received Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's criminal referral related to her bombshell claims that Obama-era officials "manufactured and politicized intelligence" to create the narrative that Russia was attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election, Fox News has confirmed. 

The Department of Justice declined further comment, but confirmed to Fox News that the department received the referral. 

Gabbard released unclassified documents Friday that reportedly show "overwhelming evidence" that then-President Barack Obama and his national security team laid the groundwork for what would be the yearslong Trump-Russia collusion probe after Trump's election win against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.

"Their goal was to usurp President Trump and subvert the will of the American people," Gabbard had posted to X on Friday regarding the criminal referral. "No matter how powerful, every person involved in this conspiracy must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The integrity of our democratic republic depends on it. We are turning over all documents to the DOJ for criminal referral." 

Gabbard joined Fox News' Maria Bartiromo Sunday, where she detailed evidence uncovered in the case, which she said showcases "overwhelming" proof that Obama-era officials laid the groundwork for what would be the yearslong Trump-Russia collusion probe after the 2016 election.

"The implications of this are frankly nothing short of historic," Gabbard said Sunday. 

"Over 100 documents that we released on Friday really detail and provide evidence of how this treasonous conspiracy was directed by President Obama just weeks before he was due to leave office after President Trump had already gotten elected. This is not a Democrat or Republican issue. This is an issue that is so serious it should concern every single American because it has to do with the integrity of our democratic republic," she continued.

Following Gabbard's revelations, Trump shared a video to his Truth Social account showing a handful of Democrats, including Obama, vowing that "no one is above the law." Later in the clip, an AI-generated video showed Trump and Obama sitting in the Oval Office before Obama is arrested while the song "YMCA" plays in the background. 

That's the current state of play as this situation begins to take shape. 

If anything, the Fox News report played down the sweep of Gabbard's remarks on a succession of Fox programs over the weekend. Speaking on Saturday's Fox & Friends Weekend, then on Sunday's Sunday Morning Futures, Gabbard repeatedly accused President Obama of having engaged in a "treasonous conspiracy" and a "seditious conspiracy," with the term "attempted coup" also tossed around.

Treason can be punishable by death. People, we're just saying!

Dems went after President Trump; now the inevitable payback seems to be underway. Over the weekend, Gabbard persistently dropped the T-bomb on the head of President Trump's predecessor. This triggered cheers from an array of the usual pundits on Fox News Channel programs.

We offer this post to let you see the current state of play. Gabbard has recommended that the DOJ act, and President Trump has posted a video of his predecessor being frog-marched away.

Tomorrow, we'll show you the several different questions Gabbard has run together—has conflated—as she stages her dramatic assault. That said, it looks like the commander in chief has aligned himself with what Gabbard has said and done. 

To Blue America's pundit class, we will only say this:

Blue American pundits, please! Speaking at length about Jeffrey Epstein isn't likely to be the way out!

Tomorrow: Conflation all around