This evening Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard became the first person to formally declare her intention to seek the Democratic Party's nomination for the White House in 2020.
One of the few Democratic elected officials who supported Bernie Sanders in 2016, it makes me wonder if Sanders will bow out this time around. Either way, I don't see he 37-year old four term Congresswoman from Hawaii's 2nd District getting very far in this race.
Her friendliness with Steve Bannon earned her a meeting with then President-elect Trump and there was talk that Trump was considering appointing her as Secretary of State or Secretary of Defense. This alone should give Democrats pause.
Gabbard, an Iraq war veteran, subsequently met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and vigorously opposes any measure to remove him from power. When Gabbard announced she was running, The Daily Beast referred to her as "Bashar Assad's Favorite Democrat". Indeed, she does not believe Assad gassed his own people. But she has no trouble accusing Israel of "using live ammunition in its response to unarmed protesters in Gaza."
When someone supports Assad as strongly as Gabbard does support for Russia is sure to follow as evidenced by her excusing Russian military excesses in Syria against civilians and opposition groups and her reluctance to support the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The only constituency I can see support Gabbard's bid is the Kremlin. Given revelations that the FBI opened an investigation into Trump to see if he was a Russian agent following his firing of James Comey, the FBI might very well have similar concerns about Gabbard. Vladimir Putin would love a Trump vs. Gabbard matchup. Regardless of who wins that race, Russia has a puppet in the White House.
No comments:
Post a Comment