Mainstream Media Largely Silent on Tulsi Gabbard’s Explosive Claims About Obama Administration

MSNBC Labels Document Coverage as 'Latest Distraction

Last week, former Congresswoman and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard claimed that intelligence was "manufactured and politicized" by top officials in the Obama administration in 2016, suggesting that the American public is finally on the verge of learning the full truth. Despite the gravity of her allegations, mainstream media outlets showed little interest in the story.

On Friday, Gabbard declassified documents that she says contain "overwhelming evidence" showing that, following Donald Trump's 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton, then-President Barack Obama and his national security team initiated the foundation for the years-long Trump–Russia collusion investigation.

However, a review of broadcast transcripts via Grabien Media found that neither ABC News nor NBC News covered the story on-air through Sunday.CBS News briefly addressed the story Sunday on Face the Nation, when anchor Margaret Brennan questioned Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., about whether there was any "legal basis" for prosecution. In response, Himes dismissed Tulsi Gabbard’s claims as a "dangerous lie" and insisted there was no legal merit.

"When you start throwing around language like ‘treason,’ somebody will get hurt," Himes warned. "There is not a judge [in] the land that will treat this with anything other than laughter."

Jorge Bonilla, an analyst for NewsBusters, expressed surprise that only one legacy Sunday public affairs show even mentioned the story, while NBC’s Meet the Press and ABC’s This Week completely ignored it.

"Rest assured, it wasn’t a bipartisan panel discussion or an interview with Gabbard," Bonilla noted. "Instead, CBS’s Margaret Brennan brought on the top Democrat from the House Intelligence Committee to downplay the release and manage the fallout."Between Friday afternoon—when Fox News Digital first broke the story—and Monday, CNN mentioned Tulsi Gabbard’s bombshell report just twice. The first reference came Saturday morning, and the second during Monday’s episode of The Lead with Jake Tapper. On that broadcast, Tapper interviewed Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., who criticized Gabbard’s findings and claimed she was attempting to regain favor with Donald Trump. Crow also alleged Gabbard’s report was an effort to divert attention from the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein case, following initial intelligence assessments that downplayed the effectiveness of Trump’s airstrike on Iranian nuclear sites.

MSNBC devoted more airtime to dismissing the report, echoing the narrative that Republicans were using it to deflect from negative headlines.

"The latest distraction comes from the national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard, who put out a baseless report Friday accusing the Obama administration of manufacturing intelligence that laid the groundwork for the FBI’s Russia probe into Trump," MSNBC anchor Ayman Mohyeldin said.Former CIA Director and current MSNBC analyst John Brennan appeared on Deadline: White House with Nicolle Wallace on Monday, where he called Tulsi Gabbard’s report “really troubling” and “very dangerous.” Brennan claimed the report “wholly misrepresents what the intelligence community did” in 2016 and dismissed Gabbard’s assertions as “ludicrous.”

The New York Times covered the story under the headline: “Gabbard Claims Obama Administration Tried to Undermine Trump in 2016,” but focused largely on Democratic pushback. The article emphasized criticism of the report, describing it as “politically motivated, error-ridden, and in contradiction with previous reviews of the assessment.” The Times quoted Rep. Jim Himes and Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, both of whom rejected Gabbard’s findings.The Washington Post didn’t acknowledge Tulsi Gabbard’s report until Monday evening—and even then, it was only briefly mentioned in an article focused on how Donald Trump allegedly wants to “focus on anything else” as “MAGA world focuses on Epstein.”

According to documents declassified by Gabbard’s office, the intelligence community repeatedly assessed in the months before the 2016 election that Russia was "probably not trying… to influence the election by using cyber means." The materials also stated there was no evidence at the time that Russia attempted to alter vote counts directly.

However, following Trump’s victory, key figures within the intelligence community publicly shifted the narrative—claiming Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to help Trump win. Gabbard argued this reversal wasn’t grounded in new intelligence but was politically motivated.

“Creating this piece of manufactured intelligence that claims Russia helped Donald Trump get elected contradicted every other assessment made in the months leading up to the election,” Gabbard told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo. “Those assessments said the opposite—that Russia had neither the intent nor the capability to ‘hack the United States election.’”

Gabbard accused the Obama administration and its senior national security team of undermining the democratic process. “What President Obama and his team did was subvert the will of the American people,” she said. “It amounted to a years-long coup against President Trump, who was duly elected.”

The evidence released by Gabbard's office implicated several high-ranking officials, including former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice. Many of those individuals—Brennan and Clapper among them—now serve as on-air analysts for MSNBC and CNN