Tulsi Gabbard

Tulsi Gabbard is an American politician, Russian propagandist,  unabashed grifter, and from 2013 to 2021, was one of two Congressional Representatives from Hawaii. She is of European and Samoan ancestry, and is the first Hindu member of the Congress.

She was the youngest woman to be elected to a U.S. state legislature, and served in the Hawaii House of Representatives from 2002 to 2004. Directly following this she served in an Iraq combat zone from 2004 to 2005, and was later deployed to Kuwait from 2008 to 2009.

She was the vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2013 until 2016, when she resigned to endorse Bernie Sanders for President. She was a relatively moderate Democrat  in a heavily left-leaning district, and her support for Sanders was a convenient way to counter a primary challenger from the left. As a result, her reputation as a progressive was quickly called into question. By 2020, it was essentially destroyed. As of 2022, she left the party, stating that the party was an "elitist cabal of warmongers". She then immediately went on to endorse several far-right Republicans, including Don Bolduc, who supported having the CIA fight the Russians in Ukraine.

It would, perhaps, be instructive to review a variety of voices that have, in the past, praised Ms Gabbard. Steve Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist, expressed admiration for her political talent. Mr. Bannon is a former chair of Breitbart News L.L.C., the parent Company of Breitbart News, which he declared "the platform of the alt-right." Richard B. Spencer and David Duke, the white nationalist leader and former KKK leader, endorsed her candidacy. Former Representative Ron Paul, whose son Senator Rand Paul has inherited his father's seat at the libertarian crazy car, praised her “libertarian instincts,” while Franklin Graham, the influential evangelist, has found her to be “refreshing.” (Noticing a pattern here?)

She announced on January 11, 2019 that she was running for President of the United States in 2020. In March 2020, Gabbard ended her campaign (after winning no contests and remaining in the single digits for polling) and endorsed Joe Biden (whom she would later compare to Adolf Hitler). Before then, she announced that she would not seek reelection to the House of Representatives.

On the issues
Gabbard opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership, calls for a restoration of the Glass-Steagall banking regulations, wants to stop mass surveillance of Americans by repealing the PATRIOT Act, supports raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and favors single-payer healthcare like many Democrats after the passage of Obamacare. She supports marijuana legalization.

In 2014, Gabbard said she was "conflicted" on the CIA's use of torture, saying that the "debate carries on" as to whether torture leads to accurate intelligence, and although she would not like to see any person being treated inhumanely she would do everything in her power to keep Americans safe in a ticking time bomb scenario.

Gabbard supports "sensible" gun control.

Tulsi's base of support comes from Indian expatriates, many of whom are BJP sympathizers or supporters. She's networked with plenty of them. She thinks that it is important to identify the enemy by using the phrase "radical Islamist terrorism." She has recently moved much further to the right, for instance comparing the vague concept of "cancel culture" to ISIS and Al-qaeda.

Gay rights
To try to act as if there is a difference between 'civil unions' and same-sex marriage is dishonest, cowardly and extremely disrespectful to the people of Hawaii who have already made overwhelmingly clear our position on this issue… As Democrats we should be representing the views of the people, not a small number of homosexual extremists.

Her record on LGBT issues is moderate. The Gabbards started in politics as homophobic activists. In 2016, the Hawaii Democratic Party's LGBT Caucus issued strong support for Gabbard's primary opponent, Shay Chan Hodges. A decade earlier, Gabbard was an anti-abortion opponent of same-sex marriage, just like her Republican father, Mike Gabbard. In her early 20s, Gabbard protested against a bill that would have legalized civil unions for same-sex couples and delivered a speech in the Hawaii State House against a resolution that was meant to target anti-gay bullying in public schools. Gabbard objected to teaching students that homosexuality is "normal and natural" and worried the resolution would be "inviting homosexual-advocacy organizations into our schools to promote their agenda to our vulnerable youth."

When Honolulu magazine emailed Gabbard's father to clarify his former relationship with Chris Butler's Hare Krishna group, Tulsi responded "it’s clear to me that you’re acting as a conduit for The Honolulu Weekly and other homosexual extremist supporters of Despite being followers of Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (a.k.a. Chris Butler), whose cult was founded after breaking away from the Hare Krishnas, Mike Gabbard publicly claims to be Catholic while Tulsi identifies as Hindu. He and Tulsi have been running a nonprofit called Stand Up for America, with the mission of promoting patriotism and unity of the US.

To her credit, Gabbard has since apologised and says her "views have changed significantly since then." Nowadays, she has a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign. While she rebuffed a 2013 offer for a meeting with the Hawaiian LGBT Caucus, she is a member of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus. Gabbard herself once cited her time in the military, seeing the dangers of theocratic rule, that made her change her mind on her public position on marriage equality. But alas, she would later reveal her views hadn't changed much after all.

Trans rights
In December 2020, Gabbard introduced a bill that would "clarify Title IX protections to be based on biological sex," meaning transgender athletes would effectively be barred from participating in women's sports. In 2022, she spoke at an anti-trans rally hosted by Matt Walsh.

Foreign policy
In short, when it comes to the war against terrorists, I'm a hawk. When it comes to counterproductive wars of regime change, I'm a dove.

Gabbard's perspective on war is that it is terrible but sometimes necessary:

Gabbard voted for the Iran nuclear deal, albeit while still being critical of Iran. She opposes allowing the US to go to war with Iran without explicit congressional authorization. She opposes the US military support for Saudi Arabia's intervention in Yemen. She also said the US has to stand up for Israel, whom she considers to be America's strongest ally. She opposes the (BDS) campaign against Israel's occupation of Palestine and cosponsored a bill establishing support for an independent 'demilitarized' Palestinian state without the ability to raise a military force for its defense.

In a 2015 press release, Gabbard was quoted saying that Egypt's had shown "great courage and leadership" in taking on "extreme Islamist ideology". Gabbard has also described India's as "a leader whose example and dedication to the people he serves should be an inspiration to elected officials everywhere."

Syria
In 2015, Gabbard criticised the United States for not bombing al-Qaeda in Syria and said it was "mind-boggling" to protest Gabbard was also in favour of directly supporting and arming Kurdish fighters in Syria and Iraq. Gabbard voted to add extra investigation of Syrian and Iraqi refugees coming into into the US, even though the screening process already took between 1.5 and 3 years. This would essentially block Syrian and Iraqi refugees from resettling in the United States.

In March 2016, Gabbard was one of only three members of Congress, and the only Democrat, to vote against a resolution condemning violence against civilians by Assad's forces. In January 2017, she went to Damascus and got wined and dined by the regime. Democratic leaders in Congress were not notified of the trip in advance. While she has called Assad a "brutal dictator", she does not believe he is an enemy of the United States. She has stated that Syria "would be in a far worse situation if al-Qaida took charge" and is therefore against a regime-change war.

In a press release following the and  Gabbard stated:

She made similar comments on CNN, adding that she would call Assad a war criminal if he were found responsible after an independent investigation:

After an investigation, the confirmed Assad's forces were responsible for the Khan Shaykhun attack. However, rather than calling for Assad's "prosecution and execution", according to Gabbard's official website, her position is that "there is evidence to suggest that the attacks [in Khan Shaykhun and Douma] may have been staged by opposition forces". Both attacks occurred after her visit with Assad.

Her website also states that "there is evidence that both the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad as well as the armed opposition groups aligned against him have used chemical weapons (CW) during the Syrian war", apparently in reference to previous chemical attacks. The evidence shows that Assad's regime carried out almost all — 98 percent — of the chemical weapon attacks. As a guest on The View, Gabbard said "there is no disputing the fact that [Assad] has used chemical weapons and other weapons against his people." Despite this, she has refused to say Assad is a war criminal:

Russian support
Al-Qaeda attacked us on 9/11 and must be defeated. Obama won’t bomb them in Syria. Putin did. #neverforget911

Apparently due to Gabbard's support for Russian military involvement in Syria, she has gained financial campaign support from at least two or three Americans who are Russia sycophants: "Stephen F. Cohen, a Russian studies professor at New York University and prominent Kremlin sympathizer; Sharon Tennison, a vocal Putin supporter"; and "Goofy Grapes", an employee of RT. The actual identity of "Goofy Grapes", who gave $1000, is unknown and would therefore seem to be a violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act. In response to the Daily Beast's revelation of these campaign donations, she responded in a most Trumpian manner, by falsely proclaiming "fake news".

On October 18, 2019, Hillary Clinton said that Russia was “grooming” a candidate to run as a third-party candidate who would help President Trump win reelection through the spoiler effect. Later that day, Gabbard went Trumpian again, responding in a tweet by attacking Clinton as the "queen of warmongers." Clinton had yet to actually confirm that her remarks were in reference to Gabbard, who nonetheless recognized that Clinton was talking about her.

In February 2019 NBC News published a report charging that "the Russian propaganda machine that tried to influence the 2016 U.S. election is now promoting" Gabbard based on an analysis of the main English-language news sites employed by Russia in the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. In October 2019 the New York Times reported that "an independent analysis of the Russian news media found that RT, the Kremlin-backed news agency, mentioned Ms. Gabbard frequently for a candidate polling in single digits, according to data collected by the ."

In 2017 Christopher Cooper, a media consultant with the Potomac Square Group, worked as a consultant to Gabbard. Cooper, a figure in the investigation of the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, has been involved in Russian-sponsored lobbying; during Congressional testimony his lobbying work was referred to as "one the best examples of Putin’s propaganda."

In 2022 it was revealed that Gabbard had accepted money from Elena Chernykh, who was at the time under indictment for illegally acting as an unregistered Russian agent on U.S. soil.

Science of Identity Foundation
Gabbard has a number of ties to the, a religious sect in Hawaii that has been described as a cult. In 2015 Gabbard referred to Chris Butler, the founder of the sect, as her "guru dev" or spiritual master. Butler had been a member of the Hare Krisha movement (ISKCON) since 1970 but later split with the organization to found SIF. SIF has sufficient similarities to ISKCON (Vaishnava branch of Hinduism, teaching of Bhakti yoga, similar taboos), that it should probably be regarded as schism of ISKCON. Gabbard's husband, Abraham Williams, has strong family connections to Butler. His mother, Anya Anthony, works with Wai Lana Productions LLC, a company associated with Butler’s wife; Anthony runs Gabbard's political office in Honolulu. Gabbard's father,, said in 2004: "Although I'm not a member of the Science of Identity Foundation, I'm eternally thankful to Chris Butler;" both he and Gabbard's mother served on the board of the Science of Identity Foundation. Gabbard has not answered questions about her ties to the sect, claiming that it is an attack on her Hindu faith.