The Biden administration stood accused by many of engaging in surveillance and censorship of political adversaries over its four-year duration, and yesterday it was revealed that a member of President Donald Trump's Cabinet was the subject of just such an effort.

During a Tuesday hearing on Capitol Hill, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) revealed that Trump administration Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was subject to air marshal surveillance during Biden's final year in office every time she boarded a domestic flight, as Fox News reports.

Paul tells all

The Kentucky lawmaker indicated that he received records verifying earlier suggestions that Gabbard had been placed on a federal government watch list and that air marshals were “reporting back information to hear appearance and even how many electronics she was observed using.”

As Fox News notes, the context of Paul's revelation was a hearing in which Kristi Noem, the current secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), was providing testimony about her agency's 2026 fiscal year budget needs.

Addressing Noem directly, Paul said, “I commend you and the Trump administration for ending all government-sponsored censorship using DHS personnel.”

The senator continued, “Just last night, I received the first set of records from the department regarding Tulsi Gabbard's placement on the TSA Quiet Skies watch list.”

Paul added, “These documents confirm our suspicions. Federal air marshals surveilled the now-director of national intelligence during domestic flights in 2024,” noting that “this is not an isolated case.”

Gabbard weighs in

Speaking on the topic last year, Gabbard recalled, “As I was traveling, I ended up in 30 to 45 minutes of going through screening every time I would go to the airport to fly. I noticed air marshals, I noticed K-9 teams. There were things that I saw and noticed that were highly unusual.”

In the wake of Tuesday's confirmation from Paul of what the Biden administration authorized, Gabbard spoke to Fox News' Laura Ingraham about what she believes triggered the aforementioned surveillance of her movements, suggesting that campaign season comments she made that were critical about then-Democratic Party presidential nominee Kamala Harris were the reason she was placed on the watch list.

“I think they were trying to intimidate me, but also, they were trying to really create this chilling effect, probably knowing that I wouldn't stay silent about it and send a message out to people that if you go and criticize then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who is now going to be the Democratic nominee for president, you, too, would face the consequences,” Gabbard opined.

Gabbard went on to discuss whether she believes that the surveillance program to which she was subjected should be allowed to continue, and after answering in the negative, she declared, “This 'Quiet Skies' program that the TSA, under the Department of Homeland Security, has tasked to federal air marshals to execute – not a single terrorist has been caught. Not a single one, for as long as this program has existed.”

She went on to observe, “So, instead, what is continuing to happen, so long as this program continues, is, every single day, 40 or 50 federal air marshals are tasked with surveilling everyday Americans for no purpose,” offering a damning indictment of the scheme the Biden administration used to monitor her travels.

More revelations to come?

As outraged as millions of Americans likely are about Gabbard's placement on the aforementioned watch list, there may be even more revelations to come about just how expansive the Biden administration's surveillance of political foes actually was.

During a recent Trump Cabinet meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that Biden's State Department declared someone sitting in the room to be a source of disinformation and proceeded to compile a dossier of that person's social media history, and though he did not provide the person's name, he said they would receive the information and could make their own choice about whether to take the situation public, making it seem likely that more stories like Gabbard's are yet emerge.