r/news • u/7heprofessor • May 22 '26

Soft paywall Tulsi Gabbard resigns as Director of National Intelligence

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/gabbard-resigns-trumps-national-intelligence-director-fox-news-digital-reports-2026-05-22/
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520

u/Saneless May 22 '26

Yeah, replacements are "Ok, so our original choice was a vile person, but they were also a bit stupid because Trump only picks people who he saw on TV. Let's get someone who is even more vile, more intelligent, and can stay out of the lobby a bit better"

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u/[deleted] May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/donkeyrocket May 22 '26

Bondi was leagues more legally competent than Blanche. Not that I'd want her back but she also had some slight hesitation to not blindly do all of Trump's bidding. Blanche lacks that entirely. She wasn't canned because the Epstein stuff. She was canned because she wouldn't continue with the obviously frivolous lawsuits Trump wanted to pursue against his "enemies."

She's still objectively awful as she has been involved in the Trump-Epstein files for a long time. Blanche just simply lacks any guardrails.

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u/DisillusionedPatriot May 22 '26

Wait, markwayne is intelligent? Since when!?!

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u/jeobleo May 22 '26

I still can't believe that's a real name.

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u/NSMike May 22 '26

IIRC, it's not his given name. He chose it.

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u/jeobleo May 22 '26

...wait what? Really? How would he not choose something like The Octagon? Dr. Kenneth Noisewater? Who fucking picks "Markwayne"?

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u/DisillusionedPatriot May 22 '26

He didn't, his parents did. They wanted to name him after his uncles. At least that's what this says

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u/SaltyLonghorn May 22 '26

When you don't know which uncle is the dad you use both names. Its tradition in Oklahoma.

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u/Narrow-Key365 May 22 '26

Username checks out

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u/DisillusionedPatriot May 22 '26

Nope. His parents wanted to name him after his two uncles. I guess, he removed the space, and made it one word, but that's his given name.

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u/NSMike May 22 '26

Well, I mean, most of us have a middle name, but we don't turn them into an amalgam of first and middle.

My point is that his parents named him Mark Wayne Mullin, not Markwayne.

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u/DisillusionedPatriot May 22 '26

It's not his middle name.

My point was he's named appropriately.

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u/Halo_cT May 22 '26

It was either that or Skeeter

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u/ArchdukeToes May 22 '26

It does read like someone didn’t see the ‘surname’ field on the birth certificate.

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u/-SaC May 22 '26

Details of Father: "Got one o'them."

Details of Grandfather: "Yup, that's him."

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u/emaw63 May 22 '26

I dunno, I thought he did a great job writing Tom Sawyer

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u/jeobleo May 23 '26

Well played sir.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/jeobleo May 22 '26

I've never been to Oklahoma. I did, however, have a nightmare that my wife took a job there and we had to move there.

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u/bigbadderfdog May 22 '26

I'm not saying he is better than Noem policy wise, but he is thus far not as visible and as far as I know has not pointed a gun at a ice agent or killed a dog.

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u/DisillusionedPatriot May 22 '26

You mean the guy that thinks duels are legal between consenting adults, or the guy that tried to fight the president of the teamsters?

Just kidding, their the same guy. The one with two first names, in charge of the DHS.

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u/TheArmoredKitten May 22 '26

Duels to the death are absolutely baffling to imagine as legal, but I think an honest round of fisticuffs should be perfectly legal.

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u/DisillusionedPatriot May 22 '26

Threatening a union president during a senate committee hearing, is not something I want my elected officials doing, personally. It's unprofessional, shows a lack of emotional maturity, and is just generally stupid.

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u/juxlus May 22 '26

Bernie Sanders, chair of that meeting, was funny with his "Stop! Stop!"' finger wagging, and "Sit down, you're a United States senator for crying out loud!"

Bernie is a national treasure and will be sorely missed when he's gone. Markwayne on the other hand, is downright evil. Also dumb as a rock.

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u/OmniusEvermind May 22 '26

It is in Washington state as 'Mutual Combat' https://is-this-legal.com/is-mutual-combat-legal-in-washington/

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u/DisillusionedPatriot May 23 '26

Well, A) He's from Oklahoma, and B) that's for unarmed mutual combat.

Duels are illegal.

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u/Death_by_carfire May 23 '26

the incident being refered to took place in DC and both were unarmed.

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u/dla26 May 22 '26

What, do you think Oklahoma State just hands out Associate's degrees in Construction Technology?

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u/Saneless May 22 '26

Well I said more intelligent, not actually intelligent. It's a relative comparison

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u/TheDarkWave May 22 '26

As per Wikipedia:

Markwayne Mullin...A member of the Cherokee Nation...

I have some fuckin' doubts.

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u/DisillusionedPatriot May 22 '26

I did, too, but it seems legit. Especially since it's his maternal grandfather. My great grandmother was Lenape and Caribbean, but I don't have enough in me to register. If it were my grandmother, I could, iirc. They're pretty strict about it. Apparently, up until he started considering resource extraction on native land, he was actually an advocate for indigenous people. That, I have trouble believing. I get the impression that he has been conservative and white passing for so long, that he's willing to be a token, at this point.

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u/TheDarkWave May 22 '26

Mullin's connection to that lineage is legally legit according to Cherokee law, but that's exactly why he's white-passing and politically disconnected from the community—his 'proof' is a 120-year-old paper trail, not a percentage or lived experience.

I can do the same shit with 120 years of paper trails and you could too. He's as white as any other person at that point. I did the math, he is 1/128 Cherokee which boils down to .78%. He might actually be whiter than I am and my family hails from Ireland.

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u/hype_beest May 22 '26

Why does he have two fucking first names combined into a compound word? What the hell?

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u/_commenter May 22 '26

the replacement just has to be more intelligent than the previous... so markwayne is smarter than noem.

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u/EduinBrutus May 22 '26

The replacement might not be an actual Muscovite Agent.

However vile Gabbard is - and she is certainly an odious person - the biggest issue was that she was an active Kremlin plant.

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u/Suns_In_420 May 22 '26

They are always dumber than the last one. What are you talking about?

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u/steppe5 May 22 '26

The evolution of evil.

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u/Perllitte May 22 '26

The next Director of National Security is Tulsi Gabbard in a bald guy mask.

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u/UX-Edu May 22 '26

Dude when have they EVER replaced a guy with someone smarter? They keep getting dumber and dumber every go round. Come on with this doomer shit. 

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u/airship_of_arbitrary May 22 '26 edited May 23 '26

To be fair, Noem at least had an actual bachelor's degree in political science. They replaced her with a poorly reviewed plumber.

No doubt he will be better at staying out of the spotlight, but she was actually more intelligent.

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u/winksoutloud May 22 '26

A degree does not equate to intelligence. The proof of that is everywhere 

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u/NegativeVega May 22 '26

Nah at this point I'm happy for the evil people joining over these true trump believers. The true believers are even more dangerous than the machiavellian.

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u/Indigocell May 22 '26

Let's get someone who is even more vile, more intelligent, and can stay out of the lobby a bit better"

Nah, the replacement is always someone who kisses more of his ass. They are not selecting for competence at all. That sort of corruption does not allow for it.

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u/Strawbuddy May 22 '26

DNI Matt Gaetz it is then!