Vance knocks down reports that he and DNI Gabbard locked out of Venezuela planning

Vice President JD Vance on Thursday firmly denied reporting that he and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had been kept out of planning for actions against Venezuela.

"I've heard a couple of things. One that I was kept out of the planning for the Venezuela operation. That's false. And another, that [Gabbard] was kept out of the planning for Venezuela operations. That's completely false," he said during a White House press briefing.

Reporting from Bloomberg on Thursday stated that Gabbard had been excluded from planning on Venezuela due to her prior skepticism of American intervention in the country. The article included statements that aides joked DNI stood for "do not invite" and cited "people familiar with the matter."

Gabbard has long been a critic of foreign interventions and is generally regarded as one of the presidential advisors most skeptical of hawkish foreign adventurism.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung responded to the article, saying that "President Trump has full confidence in [Gabbard] and she’s doing a fantastic job.” He further called the reporting an attempt to "sow division" by the media.

Speaking to Just the News, an administration official stated that "The VP directly refused this," referring to the reporting. "ODNI provided intelligence analysis that assisted in the overall mission from the analytical side, as is the job of the Director of National Intelligence."

The official further addressed subsequent reporting from the Wall Street Journal suggesting that Gabbard and President Donald Trump did not maintain a close relationship.

"DNI Gabbard is in the Oval Office every week and leads routine intelligence briefings for the president, as is her role as President Trump's Director of National Intelligence and principal intelligence advisor. She's at the White House multiple times a week," the official added.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.