{"text":[[{"start":7.6,"text":"Tulsi Gabbard has resigned as Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence, as the US president weighs whether to resume strikes on Iran in a war that has reverberated across the Middle East. "}],[{"start":18.75,"text":"A longtime critic of US interventions in overseas conflicts, Gabbard had been a controversial pick to lead the nation’s spy agencies and an increasingly uncomfortable fit in an administration that has forced regime change in Venezuela and launched a war in Iran. "}],[{"start":33.75,"text":"She announced her resignation in a letter posted on social media on Friday, saying that her husband had been diagnosed with an “extremely rare form of bone cancer” and she was leaving public office to “fully support him through this battle”."}],[{"start":47.65,"text":"Gabbard’s resignation comes as Pakistani and Qatari mediators made a fresh push on Friday to broker a deal between Washington and Tehran amid concerns that Trump could resume strikes on Iran within days. "}],[{"start":60.349999999999994,"text":"Secretary of state Marco Rubio earlier on Friday said “some progress” had been made in the latest effort to build on a fragile ceasefire that began in April, but insisted the president retained “other options” if talks failed. "}],[{"start":74.69999999999999,"text":"Trump had said on Tuesday that he had been “an hour away” from making a decision to resume strikes on Iran before being persuaded by Gulf allies to pause his plan."}],[{"start":84.35,"text":"Gabbard is the latest in a number of high-profile departures from Trump’s cabinet. The president fired secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in March, while Pam Bondi left her role as attorney-general in April. "}],[{"start":97.14999999999999,"text":"Labour secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer also resigned last month amid allegations of misconduct against her and some of her closest allies, including members of her immediate family."}],[{"start":107.99999999999999,"text":"In March, Joe Kent, one of Gabbard’s closest allies in the administration, resigned as director of the US National Counterterrorism Center in protest of the Iran war, saying Tehran posed “no imminent threat to our nation”. "}],[{"start":121.59999999999998,"text":"Days later, Gabbard struggled to avoid contradicting Trump in a congressional hearing, refusing to say whether Iran had posed an imminent threat to the US as the president claimed at the outset of the war."}],[{"start":133.24999999999997,"text":"A former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, Gabbard ran for president in 2020 on a populist platform that emphasised a less interventionist foreign policy. In 2024, she left the Democratic Party, became a Republican and endorsed Trump’s bid for the White House."}],[{"start":151.64999999999998,"text":"Gabbard was seen as a divisive pick to lead the US intelligence agencies given her previous record of positions that were sympathetic to Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin, including blaming Nato and former president Joe Biden’s administration for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. She has also claimed that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is not an “enemy” of the US."}],[{"start":175.29999999999998,"text":"Gabbard was narrowly confirmed by the US Senate as director of national intelligence in February 2025."}],[{"start":182.49999999999997,"text":"But she was never seen as a core member of the president’s national security team, and her role in the administration became increasingly tenuous in recent months. A longtime critic of US efforts to bring about regime change and nation-building overseas, Gabbard was highly critical of US escalation with Iran during Trump’s first administration. In 2019, she released a video warning the “US must not go to war with Iran”."}],[{"start":207.29999999999998,"text":"Gabbard’s departure comes with less than six months before November’s midterm elections, when Republicans will seek to maintain control of both chambers of Congress. The president has record-low approval ratings as the electorate sours on his handling of the economy and the Iran war. "}],[{"start":225.1,"text":"Trump is also staring down a growing rebellion among Republican lawmakers who have rejected his latest attempts to push the limits of executive power, including a request for $1bn in taxpayer money to help pay for his White House ballroom, as well as his plans to create a new $1.8bn “anti-weaponisation” fund for victims of alleged “lawfare”."}],[{"start":255.1,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1779502493_7278.mp3"}