'I'm thinking': Tulsi Gabbard falls into awkward silence over Iran war objectives

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) was met with silence when he asked Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard about the objectives of the war with Iran.

During a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday, Castro noted that Israel had struck Iran's energy infrastructure despite President Donald Trump telling the country not to.

"So my question is, what does the intelligence community assess Israel's goals in this war to be?" Castro asked. "And are those goals aligned with the goals of the United States?"

Despite having a working microphone, Gabbard was unable to respond for several moments.

"I'm thinking carefully here," she finally said, "about what can be said in this open setting versus a closed setting."

"Are the goals aligned?" Castro repeated.

"The objectives that have been laid out by the President are different from the objectives that have been laid out by the Israeli government," Gabbard admitted. "We can see through the operations that the Israeli government has been focused on disabling the Iranian leadership and taking out several members, obviously, beginning with the Ayatollah and the supreme leader. And they continue to focus on that effort."

"How does that differ from our goals?" the congressman wondered.

"The president has stated that his objectives are to destroy Iran's ballistic missile launching capability, their ballistic missile production capability, and their Navy, the IRGC Navy, and mine-laying capability."

Castro observed that "death and destruction continues, the economic costs to the United States, to Israel, to the Gulf states, and to the world continues to increase."

He then asked CIA Director John Ratcliffe: "Do you know why Israel decided to strike that infrastructure despite the fact that the president said it should be off limits?"

"I wouldn't speak for Israel," Ratcliffe replied.

"What do you guys know? We're at war. What do you guys know?" Castro demanded as his time ran out.

"Let's take that for the record," the chair said.