No matter the facts, no matter the extensive evidence gathered by Robert Mueller, all there for you to check out for yourself, Donald Trump has so often insisted that all attempts to investigate the multiple ways the Russians intervened to support his candidacy were/are a hoax. Who hasn’t heard him complain “Russia, Russia, Russia” a thousand times? It still haunts him:
Well, just when you might imagine the time has come to retire “Russia, Russia, Russia,” along comes Tulsi. Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence (DNI), has painlessly made the journey from Democrat to Republican, from an advocate of Bernie Saunders to the inner circle of Donald Trump. Pick your metaphor. Tulsi, leopard-like and changing her spots, or maybe Tulsi, chameleon-like and blending in, hiding in plain sight? In many ways, she is remarkable for her ability to navigate across ideological borders. But, in an era when American support for Ukraine has proven essential, as Donald Trump’s pick to head the critical post as America’s DNI, Tulsi Gabbard’s attraction to autocrats like Vladimir Putin and Syria’s Al-Assad is increasingly problematic for many.
As a reminder, here is what the Director of National Intelligence is supposed to do:
The Director of National Intelligence serves as the head of the U.S. Intelligence Community, overseeing and directing the implementation of the National Intelligence Program and acting as the principal advisor to the President, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council for intelligence matters related to national security. The President appoints the DNI with the advice and consent of the Senate. The DNI works closely with a President-appointed, Senate-confirmed Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence to effectively integrate all national and homeland security intelligence in defense of the homeland and in support of U.S. national security interests.
The other day, The Washington Post noted concerns about Gabbard in “The Russian guide to Trump’s Cabinet picks,” subtitled “Who’s good for Russia and who’s going to be a problem among Trump’s choices according to Russian commentators.” Mary Ilyushina wrote:
Gabbard’s planned appointment as the head of national intelligence elicited the most excitement in Russia because she has been long regarded as a darling of the propagandist Russian RT network, which amplified her sympathetic takes on Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and Putin.
Following the announcement, the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda published an op-ed titled ‘The CIA and FBI are trembling: why Trump protégé Tulsi Gabbard will support Russia as head of National Intelligence.’ Authors of the piece, who referred to the former U.S. Representative as ‘an audacious brunette beauty,’ highlighted that she ‘exclusively blames the White House for the conflict in Ukraine and she is sympathetic to Russian President Vladimir Putin.’
Tulsi has a theory: the Democrats staged a provocation in Ukraine and began to demonize Russia in order to prevent Trump from becoming president,” the article stated.
Oleg Tsarev, a former pro-Moscow Ukrainian politician who now lives in Russia, called her appointment ‘an encouraging decision,’ citing her recent remarks that Vice President Kamala Harris was a ‘main instigator’ in the Ukraine war by suggesting a few days before the invasion that Ukraine should become a member of NATO.
[Emphasis added.]
This Gabbard’s February 23, 2022, tweet echoes Putin’s contention that American and NATO aggression prompted Russia to invade and absorb Ukrainian territory as a buffer:
This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine’s becoming a member of NATO, which would mean US/NATO forces right on Russia’s border
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) February 24, 2022
In another pro-Russian tweet just a few days later, on February 27, 2022, Gabbard suggested that the parties should embrace “aloha” and that the Ukrainians should opt for neutrality and abandon their desire to join NATO:
Dear Presidents Putin, Zelensky, and Biden. It’s time to put geopolitics aside and embrace the spirit of aloha, respect and love, for the Ukrainian people by coming to an agreement that Ukraine will be a neutral country—i.e. no military alliance with NATO or Russia—thus… pic.twitter.com/Xh2RvMNWVk
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) February 27, 2022
It is especially revealing how the English version of Pravda], once the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, interprets Tulsi Gabbard’s positions on world affairs:
To me, what is particularly notable about Gabbard’s tweets is her either calculated or ignorant denial of the history of Soviet and then Russian aggression. It is as if the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe never happened, as if the Hungarians, the Poles, the Czechs, the East Germans, the Bulgarians, didn’t live under tyranny, their ability to express themselves, to travel, to choose their own leaders relentlessly curtailed by the occupiers and their local enforcers. The Ukrainians know so much more about the dreadful costs of living under Russian occupation than Tulsi Gabbard and Donald Trump and Elon Musk and all the other MAGA acolytes who so irresponsibly call for the abandonment of Ukraine. They might all benefit from watching “The Lives of Others,” the dramatic film about how the East German secret police spied on its citizens.
Ukraine’s recent history and the internal struggle to find alternatives to those who were dependent upon Russian power and influence mirrors the complicated efforts made by other nations struggling to free themselves from Soviet domination. Democracy is not achieved overnight and can so easily be compromised. But once again, Gabbard relies on simplistic pro-Putin propaganda:
Warmongers argue that we must protect Ukraine because it is a “democracy.” But they’re lying. Ukraine isn’t actually a democracy. To hold onto power, Ukraine’s president shut down the 3 TV stations that criticized him, and imprisoned… pic.twitter.com/HRgPS1N4Y3
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) February 10, 2022
Tulsi Gabbard glibly invokes “the aloha spirit” while offering a false equivalence between invasion and resistance. And she offers not a word about the pervasive censorship enforced on the Russian people, the vicious crackdowns on peaceful protest, the obscene prison sentences, even death, for those who dissent. But this ethical blindness seems a common response for those closest to President Trump. They obviously prefer winning favor with Putin to resolutely standing up for self-determination and the right of Ukraine to fight back. Trump’s most recent benefactor, Elon Musk, offers a similar twisted logic in his recent attack/threat against Alexander Vindman, the former director for European Affairs and an expert on Ukraine for the United States National Security Council. Vindman, if you remember, bravely opposed Trump’s efforts to blackmail Ukrainian President Zelenskyy into providing dirt on Biden.
As The Hill reports:
Elon Musk on Wednesday suggested retired Army Lt. Col Alexander Vindman ‘committed treason’ and ‘will pay’ after the former Trump impeachment witness accused the tech billionaire and close Trump ally of being unwittingly used by Russia.
Vindman is on the payroll of Ukrainian oligarchs and has committed treason against the United States, for which he will pay the appropriate penalty
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2024
In a response, Vindman asserted Musk’s comments were “false and completely unfounded accusations.” He maintained he has never taken money from Ukrainian oligarchs, while pointing out he runs a nonprofit to aid in Ukraine’s defense against Russia. “I served in the military for nearly 22 years and my loyalty is to supporting the U.S. Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. That’s why I reported presidential corruption when I witnessed an effort to steal an election,” he wrote. “You, Elon, appear to believe you can act with impunity and are attempting to silence your critics. I’m not intimidated.”
Tulsi Gabbard often invokes the aloha spirit. She told channel KHON2: “The Aloha Spirit that I carried with me is something that I will, I will continue to do no matter where I am, with that heart always for service and working towards the best interests of the people of my home state of Hawaii and our country.” On her website, she wrote:
As well as this:
It is always instructive to look at the gap between rhetoric and reality. As the November 2019 issue of the UK Critic notes:
Gabbard’s faith is one area where her backstory grows more complicated and, for a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, a lot less helpful. After her election to Congress in 2012, Gabbard was described as the first Hindu member of the House of Representatives. Though accurate, the claim conceals as much as it reveals.
Gabbard grew up in a family that followed a secretive Hawaii-based offshoot of the Hare Krishna movement led by a surfer turned guru called Chris Butler, or Guru Dev Srila Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa as he is known to his followers. Through his movement, which he calls the Science of Identity, Butler has preached a creed of, among other things, yoga, vegetarianism, environmentalism, sexual conservatism and a hostility to science since the 1970s … More than one former adherent describes the movement as a cult.
In the 1990s, Gabbard’s mother served as the treasurer for the Science of Identity Foundation and both her parents have been listed as teachers by the organisation. In 1995, Gabbard’s father, Mike, founded an organisation called Stop Promoting Homosexuality America and once hosted a self-funded anti-gay radio show called ‘Let’s talk straight, Hawaii’. Today, the campaign is, unsurprisingly, defensive about this part of Gabbard’s life. The congresswoman now says she supports same-sex marriage and blames a ‘socially conservative’ upbringing for her previous positions on gay marriage and a host of other issues. Her campaign website makes no mention of Butler’s Hare Krishna sect and says that her father, who studied at a Catholic seminary, ‘remains a lector in the Catholic church, while also practising yoga meditation.’ Gabbard says she was raised in a multi-faith family, studying Hindu and Christian scripture, and sees herself as spiritual, rather than religious. However, in a 2015 video, Gabbard describes Butler as her ‘guru dev’ and several members of her close campaign team — which includes her husband and sister — grew up in Science of Identity families.
On October 16, 2022, the UK Independent published a story titled “Tulsi Gabbard’s ties to secretive cult may explain her perplexing political journey” featuring an interview with Tulsi Gabbard’s aunt, Dr. Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard:
Tulsi Gabbard has staked out extreme positions on LGBT+ rights, spread disinformation about Ukrainian biolabs, and claimed she was being shadowbanned by Big Tech while using her vast social media footprint to label Joe Biden a ‘warmonger’. In one breath Gabbard expresses a desire to bring love and aloha from her native Hawaii to the world, in the next she is fanning conspiracy theories on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show. Last week, Gabbard announced she was leaving the Democratic Party, claiming it had become ‘an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness.’
I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are… pic.twitter.com/oAuTnxZldf
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) October 11, 2022
As for the Science of Identity Foundation (SIF), in a 2017 interview with The New Yorker, Gabbard said she had never heard Butler “say anything hateful, or anything mean about anybody. I can speak to my own personal experience and, frankly, my gratitude to him, for the gift of this wonderful spiritual practice that he has given to me, and to so many people.”
Butler told The New Yorker he did have disciples but rejected claims that he was an authoritarian. “Butler, who also goes by the name Jagad Guru, or teacher of the world, said he preferred to think of himself as a follower or student, rather than a teacher or leader. He described his relationship with his devotees as one of love.”
The Independent continues:
Oklahoma woman Robin Marshall, 40, who spent six months at a SIF retreat in Hawaii in the early 2000s, told The Independent recruits were taught to be ‘highly homophobic’ … ‘They told us: “We don’t associate with f**s,” using a homophobic slur.
The hatred, the degrading language, it was just one thing after another.’ She was played recordings of Butler who she says espoused extreme homophobic views. ‘They said he could read your mind. They were wholly and fully indoctrinated into this idea that Chris Butler was basically God.’ Marshall says she was aware back then of Tulsi Gabbard as a rising star within the foundation. She said it was ‘inconceivable’ that anyone involved with the group was not being directed by Butler.
In a 2017 Medium post, a woman who has since left SIF described how she was taught that life was an “illusion” and how followers were instructed to only develop a relationship with Butler.
We were in effect isolated from our parents … and instead looked at him like a surrogate father/messiah figure. What I am concerned about is the control I know Chris Butler has over her, the influence he has over her ability to make decisions, decisions that could become law and impact a whole lot of people,” describing him as an abusive, misogynistic, homophobic, germophobic, narcissistic nightmare.
When Gabbard ran for president in 2020, virtually every member of her campaign staff were members of the Science of Identity, According to The Independent:
Sinavaiana Gabbard said she felt it was important to speak out about the group – and her niece. ‘As a historian and lifelong student of eastern philosophies and religions, I find SIF’s role as uncritical cheerleader, if not patron and primary generator, of Tulsi’s checkered political agenda and intemperate, right wing associations to be troubling in the extreme.’…
Sinavaiana Gabbard says her niece’s career is all about the pursuit of power, and her bid for the presidency in 2020 was the culmination of four decades of Butler’s efforts to seek political influence. ‘Once again I find my niece’s apparent penchant for parroting extremist toadies such as Tucker Carlson and vile ‘strongmen’ such as Vladimir Putin, to be problematic and deeply troubling … ‘It gives me no pleasure to note that Tulsi’s single governing principle seems to be expedience, which is in effect no principle at all.’
Gabbard somehow presumes her own relationship with God justifies her condemnation of Democrats for thinking differently about the role of faith in America today. She describes her November 8, 2022, podcast interview with Donald Trump’s lawyer, Jay Sekulow, entitled “The Right to Religious Liberty“:
Tulsi Gabbard opens up about the importance of her faith and how the Democrat party has come to resent religion. The former Hawaii Congresswoman shares how her personal relationship with God grounded her on the presidential campaign trail while opening her eyes to the growing hostility from inside the party towards people of faith. Tulsi is joined by Chief Counsel of the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), Jay Sekulow to discuss his career defending religious liberty and the ongoing battles that threaten this essential freedom.
Would you be surprised to learn that Jay Sekulaw’s American Center for Law & Justice—like many MAGA, right-wing organizations—has moved far from traditional Republican suspicion and opposition to Soviet and Russian expansion to funneling money to Russian religious organizations supported by Vladimir Putin:
One of Donald Trump’s top lawyers leads an organisation that has given at least $3.3 million since 2007 to a Russian evangelical group with ties to Vladimir Putin’s government, a new investigation from openDemocracy and Mother Jones reveals today.
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), founded in 1990 by right-wing evangelical Pat Robertson, has been sending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to the Moscow-based Slavic Center of Law and Justice (SCLJ), according to ACLJ’s US financial filings.
The chief counsel for the ACLJ – and its driving force – is Jay Sekulow, who famously shepherded Trump’s impeachment defence as one of his private attorneys …
The SCLJ was founded by the ACLJ in the 1990s. It is directed by Vladimir Ryakhovsky, an evangelical activist and Russian lawyer who also serves on Putin’s controversial human rights council – as well as Russia’s Putin-funded press complaints commission. Sekulow’s ACLJ says in its financial filings that the money sent to its Russian branch is intended to underwrite ‘litigation and legal services related to religious freedoms and human rights in Russia.’
There is a growing confluence between MAGA support for Russia and Russia’s extreme intolerance for homosexuality and LGBTQ+ rights. Putin has pushed for criminalizing those behaviors he regards as aberrant, all promoted, he claims, by the amoral West, and the United States in particular:
And this:
It seems money flows both ways between the U.S and Russia. The UK Independent ran a story titled “Accused Russian agent Elena Branson donated to Tulsi Gabbard’s 2020 presidential campaign, records show.” The Independent wrote:
A dual US-Russian citizen accused of spying on behalf of Vladimir Putin’s government previously donated to Tulsi Gabbard’s presidential campaign, it has emerged. As reported by the Daily Beast, Elena Branson, aka Elena Chernykh, is listed on FEC donations records as a donor to Ms Gabbard’s campaign, sending her two separate contributions via progressive fundraising organisation ActBlue in February and June 2019 … Federal prosecutors allege Elena Branson … illegally acted as a Russian government agent in the US over the last decade …
[Emphasis added.]
On March 8, 2022, The Independent added:
The US Department of Justice alleges that a 61-year-old Russian national coordinated with Vladimir Putin and lobbyists to promote Russian propaganda in the US, illegally acting as a foreign agent for Russia’s government while operating US-based organisations and an ‘I Love Russia’ campaign. Federal prosecutors have charged Elena Branson – a dual citizen of the US and Russia – with acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying US authorities, conspiring to commit visa fraud, making false statements to the FBI, and failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
US Attorney Damian Williams with the Southern District of New York said Ms Branson ‘actively subverted foreign agent registration laws in the United States in order to promote Russian policies and ideology. The Russian government at its highest levels, up to and including President Vladimir Putin, have made known that aggressive propaganda and recruitment of the Russian diaspora around the world is a Russian priority,’ he said in a statement on 8 March. In connection with this pursuit, Branson is alleged to have corresponded with Putin himself and met with a high-ranking Russia minister before founding a Russian propaganda center here in New York City, the Russian Center New York. She left the US in 2020 for Russia and remains at large, according to the Justice Department.
Kelefa Sanneh, in her October 30, 2017, portrait for The New Yorker, prefigured Tulsi Gabbard’s rise in American politics and captured the multi-faceted contradictions that make her so fascinating to folks on both the left and right:
She is thirty-six, and has a knack for projecting both youthful joy and grownup gravitas. Her political profile is similarly hybrid. She is a fervent Bernie Sanders supporter with equally fervent bipartisan tendencies — known, roughly equally, for her concern for the treatment of veterans and her opposition to U.S. intervention abroad. She is also a vegetarian and a practicing Hindu — the first Hindu ever elected to Congress — as well as a lifelong surfer and an accomplished athlete. On Capitol Hill, she is often regarded as a glamorous anomaly: a Hawaiian action figure, fabulously out of place among her besuited colleagues.
A set of photos helps to explain why she has attracted such notice:
Tulsi Gabbard’s website adds context to her military service:
In April 2003, while serving in the Hawaii State Legislature, Gabbard enlisted in the Hawaii Army National Guard. In July 2004, she was deployed for a 12-month tour in Iraq, serving as a specialist with the Medical Company, 29th Support Battalion, 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team … In March 2007, she graduated from the Accelerated Officer Candidate School at the Alabama Military Academy. She was commissioned as a second lieutenant, and assigned to the 29th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Hawaii Army National Guard, this time to serve as an Army Military Police officer. She was stationed in Kuwait from 2008 to 2009…
On October 12, 2015, she was promoted from the rank of captain to major at a ceremony at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. She continued to serve as a major in the Hawaii Army National Guard until her transfer to the 351st Civil Affairs Command, a California-based United States Army Reserve unit … In October 2020, Gabbard left the Hawaii Army National Guard to join the Army Reserves with a California-based unit. On July 4, 2021, Gabbard was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
In an era when male politicians and commentators go on and on about patriotism and standing strong, and some still question whether to allow women to serve, Tulsi Gabbard has put her life on the line.
And then there is the other side of Tulsi Gabbard. According to StandwithTulsi.com:
She was brought up in a large culturally and religiously diverse family and she was a teenager when she adopted the Hindu faith … I chose to take the oath of office with my personal copy of the Bhagavad Gita because its teachings have inspired me to be a servant-leader, dedicating my life in the service of others and to my country.
According to the 2017 New Yorker profile:
When Gabbard entered politics, she was only twenty-one, and in those early years she was a social conservative, pro-life and active in the fight against same-sex marriage. She is now pro-choice and pro-same-sex-marriage: on these and other issues, she has evolved enough to be almost — but not quite — at home in the contemporary Democratic Party, which is increasingly progressive, particularly on issues of gender and sexual orientation … in last year’s election, Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump [in Hawaii] … sixty-two per cent to thirty per cent, her biggest victory anywhere besides the District of Columbia. Many of those Clinton voters were unhappily surprised when, less than two weeks after the election, Gabbard agreed to meet with Trump to make her case for a noninterventionist foreign policy. A few months later, she flew to Syria and met with Bashar al-Assad, who is presiding over a brutal civil war; she and he seemed to agree that the United States should not intervene to stop it.
When it comes to issues of faith, Civilbeat is a bit harsher:
Trump’s nomination of the former Hawaii congresswoman to be national intelligence director is likely to renew questions about her beliefs and background … The former congresswoman has also been dogged by her long-standing ties to the Science of Identity Foundation and its founder, Chris Butler. The Science of Identity Foundation is an offshoot of Hare Krishna that former members have described as a cult … Her ties to Butler continued during her presidential campaign. Gabbard spent hundreds of thousands of dollars with companies affiliated with members of the organization, including one of her top paid consultants who lived in a remote town in Washington state.
As for foreign affairs, Civilbeat writes:
Since leaving Congress, Gabbard has been openly skeptical of U.S. support of Ukraine and has even faced criticism for sharing Russian-backed conspiracy theories, proven to be baseless, about U.S. funding of biological weapons labs in the country.
A headline in Newsweek’s March 31, 2022, issue announced, “Tulsi Gabbard Labeled a ‘Russian Asset’ for Pushing U.S. Biolabs in Ukraine Claim.” Newsweek wrote:
In a tweet posted on Sunday, the 2020 presidential hopeful cited the risk posed by biological laboratories at a time Moscow has been pushing a conspiracy theory that they are working on bio weapons in an apparent attempt to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
There are 25+ US-funded biolabs in Ukraine which if breached would release & spread deadly pathogens to US/world. We must take action now to prevent disaster. US/Russia/Ukraine/NATO/UN/EU must implement a ceasefire now around these labs until they’re secured & pathogens destroyed pic.twitter.com/dhDTH5smIG
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) March 13, 2022
Newsweek continued:
In a video, Gabbard said the ‘undeniable facts’ are that 25 to 30 ‘U.S.-funded bio labs’ in Ukraine are conducting research into dangerous pathogens. Gabbard went on to express concerns that these ‘deadly pathogens’ could be released if the labs in Ukraine are targeted amid the conflict with Russia. ‘Like COVID, these pathogens know no borders,’ Gabbard said. ‘If they are inadvertently or purposely breached or compromised, they will quickly spread all throughout Europe, the United States and the rest of the world, causing untold suffering and death.’
GOP rep. Adam Kinzinger tweeted that Gabbard was spreading ‘actual Russian propaganda’ and accused her of being ‘traitorous’ … Republican Senator Mitt Romney gave some of the harshest condemnation of the former Hawaii Democratic Congresswoman, tweeting that she is ‘parroting false Russian propaganda’ and that her ‘treasonous lies may well cost lives.’
Newsweek added this clarification:
The White House, Pentagon and State Department have all dismissed the reports that the U.S. and Ukraine are working together to create biological and chemical weapons, describing the conspiracy theories as ‘laughable’ and an attempt from Moscow to justify its ‘own horrific actions in Ukraine.’ The U.S and Ukraine have been working together since 2005 to research deadly pathogens as part of the Pentagon’s Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP) … According to a fact sheet released by the Defense Department, the U.S. works with Ukraine and other countries to research the threats of dangerous diseases affecting both animals and humans.
Through BTRP, the U.S. has invested $200 million in Ukraine since 2005 to support 46 Ukrainian laboratories and their research into disease threats. Such work in Ukraine helped the country in its response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
As for getting things wrong, it could be Tulsi Gabbard’s deep ties to Butler and SIF or her growing alliance with right-wingers like Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson or her connection to Donald Trump, but her commitment to “the spirit of aloha” seems lacking. Gabbard’s self-proclaimed love for everyone, irrespective of gender identity or sexual identity, could be just the words of yet another politician anxious for approval. As the UK Independent points out, “Gabbard has consistently echoed GOP positions on immigration and LGBT+ issues, and recently claimed that Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill was too moderate.”
While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ bill doesn’t actually require that teachers and administrators “don’t say gay,” it is meant to curtail teaching about LGBT+ issues and gender identity:
Sadly, Tulsi Gabbard took to Twitter to proclaim these restrictions weren’t comprehensive enough:
When I first heard about Florida’s Parental Rights bill, I was shocked it only protects children K-3. Third grade? How about 12th grade—or not at all. Meanwhile, schools are failing: 1 in 4 graduates are functionally illiterate. Parents should raise their kids, not the government pic.twitter.com/CycF8cKRh3
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) April 4, 2022
It seems in so many ways Tulsi Gabbard has transformed herself into an ideologue. Unfortunately, she has become yet one more politician willing to embrace the ultra-right-wing ethos that demonizes Democrats and mischaracterizes a politics of empathy and a desire to protect equal rights into the need of progressives to impose “a woke agenda.” In the process, Tulsi Gabbard has forsaken the very aloha spirit that made her appear different from so many other politicians. Forsaking objectivity and critical thinking for dogma.
Her lies about Ukraine, her willingness to accept Putin’s outrageous misinformation and refusal to condemn the war he is waging on the sovereign territory of his neighbor disqualifies her for consideration as the Director of National Intelligence. I can’t imagine the intelligence services of any nation with a clear-eyed understanding of the very real threat Putin’s Russia poses to any of its European neighbors willing to share its secrets with an American intelligence service led by Tulsi Gabbard. Only an American president like Donald Trump, so enamored with Putin and other authoritarians, would ever imagine her a qualified candidate.
