WASHINGTON — The husband of former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard underwent surgery for sacral chordoma cancer and is recovering well, Gabbard shared in an emotional video first obtained by The Daily Wire on Thursday.
Gabbard said that her husband Abraham did not know he had cancer until he went to the doctor for pain in his back. Doctors then shared with him that he had a tumor growing around his tailbone, and after several rounds of biopsies, revealed that he had a diagnosis of “sacral chordoma” a “very very rare, one in a million type of cancer,” Gabbard said.
“Everything got blurry at that moment for me,” she said, sharing that she was in a meeting at DNI when she learned the news. “I packed up all my stuff, got in the car, called Abraham, and said ‘I’m coming home,’ and I got back to him as quickly as I could so that we could just sit together and process this confirmation that my husband has cancer.”
Gabbard said doctors gave her husband two options: very invasive surgery, or radiation. She and her husband opted for the surgery and scheduled it as quickly as they could.
In her video message, an emotional Gabbard shares footage of her husband in the hospital, saying it was a “long eight hours” as he underwent the surgery, adding that she didn’t expect how scary the surgery would be. The video footage shows Gabbard hugging her husband, holding his hand, fixing his surgical cap as he awaited the surgery, as well as Abraham attempting to walk around the hospital after his surgery and even throwing up from the post-operative pain, since he refused to take any of the narcotic pain medication.
Tulsi Gabbard greets her husband Abraham Williams as she arrives to testify during her confirmation hearing on January 30, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“A few weeks after the surgery was done, we got the best call. The pathologists and the doctors said they were confident that they were able to cut out all of the cancerous bone and tissue.”
Almost three months later, Gabbard said, her husband has been undergoing a rigorous physical therapy program.
“Overall, Abraham is progressing very well,” she said. “The reality is that the battle isn’t over yet. Even as Abraham’s recovery continues, we are going to have to keep a very close eye on this. He’ll have to continue to get frequent MRI’s to keep an eye on whether or not this cancer is coming back either in the same place or in other parts of his body.”
The former Director of National Intelligence said both she and her husband are so grateful to God for “His unconditional love, for being our shelter, for being our peace and our strength and our stability, our everything, throughout this whole process and in our lives.” She also thanked the doctors and all the medical professionals who have aided her husband, and thanked everyone who has prayed for them and stood by them throughout this time of hardship.
The video closes with Gabbard breaking down in tears and Abraham joining her to hug and console her as she wipes away her tears with a tissue.
Gabbard announced in late May that she would resign from her role as Director of National Intelligence, President Donald Trump’s spy chief, sharing that her husband was battling “an extremely rare form of bone cancer” and that she must “step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle.”
“Unfortunately, after having done a great job, Tulsi Gabbard will be leaving the Administration on June 30th,” Trump said at the time. “Her wonderful husband, Abraham, has been recently diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer, and she, rightfully, wants to be with him, bringing him back to good health as they currently fight a tough battle together.”
“I have no doubt he will soon be better than ever,” Trump added. “Tulsi has done an incredible job, and we will miss her.”
Gabbard served 15 months in her role as Director of National Intelligence, working to transform the intelligence community and restore public trust through reforms, many declassifications, aggressive transparency, revoking security clearances of intel officials who “abused public trust,” ditching DEI programs, and targeting foreign terrorist organizations.
As of May 2026, she oversaw the declassification of more than 500,000 pages of previously withheld government records, including records tied to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., along with files related to Amelia Earhart’s disappearance and Biden administration documents outlining the federal government’s “Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism.” Her “ODNI 2.0” restructuring initiative also reduced agency bloat by more than 40%, saving taxpayers an estimated $700 million per year.
