Top Fox correspondent questions Gabbard’s 'long involvement' with group 'many classify as a cult'

16 December 2024

Image via Screengrab / Fox News.

Fox News' chief national security correspondent on Monday questioned the validity of former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard's nomination as President-elect Donald Trump's potential director of national intelligence, Mediaite reports.

Jennifer Griffin wrote via X: "Tulsi Gabbard’s long involvement with the Science of Identity Foundation raises questions about the judgment and autonomy needed to advise the president on national security – Hawaii reporter looks at Gabbard’s ties to group that many classify as a cult."

The top Fox News correspondent shared a link to an article written by Honolulu Civil Beat's Washington correspondent, Nick Grube.

Grube reported last week that Anita van Duyn — "a former member of a secretive Hawaiʻi religious sect" — said Gabbard "spent 15 years inside the Science of Identity Foundation, a fringe offshoot of Hare Krishna that was formed in the 1970s and has been described by defectors as a cult."

Per the report, Van Duyn notified Democratic lawmakers by sending letters to Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-WI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), "detailing Gabbard’s deep ties to the organization and its reclusive founder, Chris Butler, who still resides in a multimillion-dollar beachfront home in Kailua."

The Democratic lawmaker turned MAGA activist maintains a personal relationship with the group, as her parents were members of the Science of Identity Foundation when she was born, Grube also notes.

Regarding Gabbard's professional life, "Science of Identity members have donated to her campaigns, sign-waved on her behalf and even staffed her most ambitious political endeavors, most prominently her run for president," Grube reported. "In some cases, these followers were simply volunteering their time and efforts. In others, they were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars."

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