Tulsi Gabbard slams Schiff, Brennan, Big Tech as more 'dangerous' than Capitol rioters

Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, asserted that tech industry leaders and Democrats such as Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and former CIA director John Brennan are "domestic enemies" of the U.S. who are more dangerous than the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6.

In a video and thread posted to Twitter Tuesday morning, the former Democratic presidential candidate denounced the violent protesters, but warned that efforts to combat insurgency through surveillance and other monitoring activities posed a greater threat to the country.

"The mob who stormed the Capitol on January 6 to try to stop Congress from carrying out its constitutional responsibilities were behaving like domestic enemies of our country," Gabbard said. "But let’s be clear, the John Brennans, Adam Schiffs and the oligarchs in Big Tech who are trying to undermine our constitutionally protected rights and turn our country into a police state with KGB-style surveillance are also domestic enemies — and much more powerful, and therefore dangerous, than the mob that stormed the Capitol."

Gabbard then showed a clip of Brennan telling MSNBC that Biden’s nominees and appointees "are now moving in laser-like fashion to try to uncover as much as they can" regarding activities that he said were reminiscent of "insurgency movements" that have risen up in other countries.  

Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, introduced a bill in 2019 that would create a new statute for a federal offense of domestic terrorism. The bill did recognize the potential for abuse, calling for a report on civil liberty issues that arise from the new statute to be made public within four years of the bill's passage and enactment.