WASHINGTON — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Friday it was absolutely “infuriating” that a Democratic House member referred to last month’s DC shooting, which killed one National Guard member and critically wounded another, as an “unfortunate accident” in a hearing on Capitol Hill.
“This is someone who is a very, very senior leader in Congress, who for a long time has led the Homeland Security Committee,” Gabbard erupted during a “Fox & Friends” interview when discussing Rep. Bennie Thompson’s remarks before the House Homeland Security Committee.
“He cannot and refuses to directly identify this attack for what it was: a terrorist attack on our own soil, against our National Guard men and women in this case, who are putting their lives on the line.”
In Thursday’s hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Thompson (D-Miss.) referred to the murder of West Virginia Guardswoman Sarah Beckstrom, 20, as an “unfortunate accident.”
“It was an unfortunate situation,” Thompson told Noem. “But you blamed it solely on Joe Biden.”
“Unfortunate accident? It was a terrorist attack. He shot our Guardsmen in the head,” Noem corrected Thompson.
The Mississippi Democrat was helped in cleaning up his remarks later Thursday during an appearance on CNN, when one of its anchors suggested Thompson may have “misspoke.”
“The man is charged with first-degree murder. Do you believe it was an accident?” asked anchor Kate Bolduan.
“Oh, absolutely not. And obviously, let me be clear, I was moving toward the discussion that she could not blame Joe Biden on the situation because she approved this person’s asylum application.”
“So you’re saying you misspoke?” Bolduan followed up.
“Oh absolutely, absolutely,” answered Thompson, who was one of several Democrats given a pre-emptive pardon by President Joe Biden for his work with the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Afghan evacuee Rahmanullah Lakanwal traveled from Washington state to Washington, DC, and attacked National Guard troops deployed — with the coordination of the city’s Democratic mayor — to help reduce crime.
Beckstrom died at a local hospital, while Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, is still recovering from his gunshot wounds.
Follow the latest on the National Guard shooting in Washington, DC:
Gabbard told co-host Brian Kilmeade that the Guard members’ “direct mission was to keep the American people safe right here on our streets in Washington, DC.”
Prosecutors have charged Lakanwal, 29, with first-degree murder while armed, assault with intent to kill while armed, and two counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Charging documents made public Dec. 2 revealed that the suspect shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he fired his handgun. Lakanwal is being held without bond.
The 29-year-old entered the US with 88,000 other Afghans as part of the botched withdrawal of American forces from Kabul in August 2021, but Trump administration officials have said none of those evacuees received sufficient vetting.
Lakanwal was only scrutinized by intelligence to serve in an elite, CIA-backed paramilitary force fighting the Taliban, ISIS and al Qaeda, not to settle in the US, those officials have noted.
National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent revealed in the same Homeland Security Committee hearing that of the 88,000 Afghans who came into the country after the withdrawal, at least 2,000 are suspected or known terrorists.
Half a dozen or so have already been arrested and charged with planning to carry out other attacks or aiding terror groups like ISIS.
“This exchange really points to the egregious and longstanding problem, Brian, that we’ve seen, which is leaders — some on both sides of the aisle — who refuse to identify this Islamist terrorist threat for exactly what it is,” Gabbard emphasized in her “Fox & Friends” interview.
In total, Kent noted that 18,000 suspected or known terrorists entered the US during Biden’s term — and US intelligence agencies are working furiously on apprehending them all.
None of those terrorists came in through the open southern border, the NCTC director noted, suggesting that they had been able to enter through an array of programs set up by the prior administration, like Operation Allies Welcome for Afghans.
The thousands of terror suspects are mostly linked to al Qaeda and ISIS, he added, and are intent on implementing a “new playbook” of individual, “decentralized” attacks on Americans.
The Trump administration paused the issuance of visas for Afghans in the wake of the DC shooting and launched a full review of all evacuees.
Asylum applications have also been paused.
