The aides were concerned Gabbard might leak the name of the defector, who had hidden his identity out of fear of reprisals from the Assad regime.
In the past, Caesar had spoken privately to members of Congress without his face covered when Gabbard was not present.
The Assad regime brutally crushed peaceful political protests in 2011, firing on unarmed demonstrators and carrying out mass arrests and torture.
As the war intensified, Gabbard’s sympathetic statements about the Russian-backed Assad regime raised eyebrows and alarmed her colleagues.
“She basically completely adopted the Assad regime propaganda, where she suggested falsely that the U.S. was supporting terrorist extremists in Syria, and didn’t mention that the Assad regime had been slaughtering fellow Syrians there,” the former official said.
Persons:
Assad, Tulsi Gabbard, Bashar al, Caesar, ”, Gabbard, Tulsi doesn’t, Mouaz Moustafa, Donald Trump, Alexa Henning, Donald Trump’s, Henning, Seth Moulton of, nodded, Moustafa, “, ” Moustafa, Josh Rogin, Drew Angerer, ” Henning, Obama, Ryan Grimm, Trump, Republican Sen, James Lankford of, Bashar Assad, we’ll, ” Lankford, Nikki Haley, Gabbard’s, that’s, ” Haley
Organizations:
House Foreign Affairs, Democratic, Republican, Syrian Emergency, Force, NBC News, Trump, Army Reserve, U.S . House, Representatives, Gabbard, Capitol, Democratic Party, Army National Guard, House Foreign Affairs Committee, Moustafa, ISIS, Washington, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Lebanese Hezbollah, Capitol Hill, U.S, Ambassador, United Nations, Organization for, Chemical Weapons, CNN, United, Republicans, Senate Intelligence, NATO, Sirius XM
Locations:
Syrian, Damascus, U.S, Russia, Syria, Iranian, Iraq, Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, Turkish, Gaziantep, Gabbard, Lebanese, Lebanon, United States, Washington, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Carolina, Ukraine