Tulsi Gabbard on Being Called a "Russian Asset" by Hillary Clinton

People are using these debates knowing that they're going to get these sound bites and knowing that, and you could see some of them work, like yours with Kamala Harris and some of them don't. Like when she was attacking Elizabeth Warren for not wanting Trump to get kicked off of Twitter. Like, do you read his Twitter? It's fantastic. Keep him on. That's the best way we understand who he really is. I mean, you can get some of that out of speeches, but when he posts a picture of Greenland with a giant Trump Tower in it and says, I promise not to do this. Listen, if you're on Team America, you want that guy to keep tweeting. Because that was damn hilarious. It's hilarious too. You called it a while ago when you say, hey, no one, there's no comedians that have that skill, which Trump has, of cracking jokes, making fun of people, letting the other jokes roll off of his back because he doesn't care what people say about him, basically. And no one's really had to contend with that until now. It's really interesting. No one knows how to handle it. It's really fun. When you watch the original Republican debates when he was running for president and he starts attacking these guys, you see them, Mark Arubias, you see them lock up, crazy Ted, like, he's going after me. He's ruining my thing. It's a nutty place to watch. Do you get to hang out with Kamala Harris backstage? No. No. I mean, there's everyone separated. No, there's just a little holding area kind of space, like a lot smaller than this room. You're all hanging out in there together? During the commercial breaks, yeah. Did you say anything to you? Did you have eye contact with her? No. Maybe every now and then, but I honestly like... Yeah. I'm probably not on the top of her friend list. Yeah. You sank a battleship. And then, I mean, Hillary Clinton. Yeah. Well, what's up with that war? Because again, she's the matriarch of the Clinton family and there she is, the hero to many people of the Democratic Party and you two are scrapping. Did that start when you... Did that start... Did you supported Bernie in 2016? Is that where it started? Yeah. Okay. And that was something... Back in 2016, I was the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. Therefore, as an officer, the DNC had to remain neutral in the presidential election, which was my plan to do so. I really made the decision to resign from that seat so that I could endorse Bernie Sanders, largely because of his difference with Hillary Clinton and foreign policy. Hillary Clinton had very much of an interventionist, in my opinion, the war hawk regime change war policy that she had shown throughout her time, both in the administration as well as as US Senator and Bernie Sanders, lean the other way. He's more of a non-interventionist. And I saw that in those debates at that time, the conversations that were in the media was not bringing up this difference between the two of them so that voters could make an informed choice of who they want their commander in chief to be, which to me, just as a soldier, as a veteran, as an American, I'm like, how can you not be putting this issue at the forefront? So I resigned from that position, endorsed Bernie Sanders, started going out and just talking about and raising these issues on the campaign trail. But I remember one of the first interviews that I did on MSNBC, the host of the show saying, aren't you afraid of what the Clintons will do to you? I said this on live television. And my answer was no, obviously, but it was amazing. It was interesting to see the reaction like the days after when I first went back to DC after I made that announcement of endorsement and friends of mine, you know, politicians in Washington, they were like, man, Tulsi, like, go with God, sister. It's a different animal. So like, if you get into some sort of verbal altercation with Joe Biden, there's no concern for your life. Like, I'm not saying it's real or not. But the rumor is always there's a thing called the Clinton Body Count. Yeah, Joe Biden is like Uncle Joe. I don't think it is real. It's probably some of it. Most of it, let's say it's all made up. The fact that that's out there, that the thought is out there, that they will whack you. Well, there's, I mean, the people who are saying, hey, look, you know, there are lists that are kept and your political career will be over. That was really the message that I got from people who've been around the block a few times. I think the most recent thing that came up with what Hillary Clinton said about me is it's not a spat between two people. It really just shows the complete difference and the conflict in our foreign policy views of what I call the Bush-Clinton doctrine of interventionism and regime change wars and warmongering versus what I'm putting forward, which is let's stop the regime change war, world's police policies, work to end this new Cold War and arms race, put the interests of the American people first, always ensuring that we have a strong and capable ready military to defend our nation and our people and honoring that service and sacrifice that our troops give by only sending them on missions worthy of their sacrifice, maximizing diplomacy, engagement with other countries in the world through cooperation rather than conflict and always seeing war as a last resort. So that conflict that you're seeing in the media that's been playing out and again, why you're seeing so much of the corporate media and the political machine attacking me is because of this difference, is because of this change in foreign policy that I'm bringing about because when it comes right down to it, whether you're going back to the Cold War, back to Vietnam War, back to the Iraq War overthrowing Saddam Hussein, Libya, Gaddafi, the media has always kind of been this cheerleading voice for these wars to happen, sending a very clear narrative out to the American people. And I think it comes down to it's good business for them. It's good ratings, make some money. I want to talk to you about that, but I want to talk to you about what she said to you or about you rather, that she said that you are a Russian asset. That was the insinuation, right? Yeah. Like, what was the base of that and how does someone who is- Completely baseless. That's what's weird, right? How does someone who was running for president and is one of the most prominent politicians in our country? How do they get away with something, saying something that's such a huge accusation with no information to back it up? It would be a good question for a normal person, but when you look at the power of the Clinton machine, when you look at the power of the political establishment, which is made up of people who are either part of the Clinton so-called family or who are part of this political establishment that is built on the same foundation that she, Hillary Clinton laid, when you look at the media establishment, who've been pushing a lot of the same narrative and a lot of the same message, then you can see how somebody gets away with calling a sitting member of Congress, a candidate for president, a soldier actively serving the Army National Guard, veteran of two Middle East deployments, basically a traitor to the country that I love and that I'm willing to lay my life down for and to get away with it without any evidence or base whatsoever. Not just that, but no pushback. No. That was the most bizarre thing. No one said, hold on. What are you saying she is? You're saying she's a Russian asset. Define that. What do you mean by that? Define an unwitting Russian asset? Are you saying that Russia's behind her to try to do something against Bernie or Elizabeth Warren or whatever the consensus pick is? What are you saying? There was no questions like that. There were no questions like that. And look, even if there were witting or unwitting, so she's basically either saying that I'm a traitor to my nation or that I am an unwitting asset, which means basically you are too stupid and too naive to know that you're being used to further the interests of a nation other than our own, both of which are deeply, deeply offensive and again, without any base. And I think that that's the, like, this is bigger. This isn't, this is really not about me. The danger here of what she did and how the media responded and how almost every single other candidate for president refused to comment, refused to denounce what she said. Bernie I think Bernie is an exception. Mary Ann Williamson, Andrew Yang, a couple of them had the courage to say, Hey, look, this is ridiculous. The fact that that was, that was the response is really, it has a chilling effect on our freedom of speech in this country. And it sends a message that whether it's Tulsi Gabbard or any other American or any other veteran who dares to stand up and challenge the establishment, challenge this foreign policy narrative, call for peace, call for an end to these senseless, unnecessary regime change wars, then you too can be smeared. Your character can be smeared. Do you ever think you could reach a tipping point where this happens enough, this kind of thing happens where you just say, all right, I'm done with, in this case, the Democratic party. I mean, even after what they did to Bernie in 2016, right? I'm sure that had to be a tipping point for a lot of people that said, wait a second, this is the guy we wanted and you totally hosed him. And now we got this woman over here, but we didn't want him. How many times can this happen before people go, Oh, you know, I'm done with this. I see this as something that's bigger than just the Democratic party because we see this, we see how this kind of foreign policy elite and establishment in Washington has crossed both parties over different times. And it's something that I think goes much deeper than that. I'm working to bring about reforms in the Democratic party to make it so that it is more democratic, more open, more transparent, you know, more inclusive and welcoming of people who, you know, may agree on some issues, disagree on others, but one that is actually serving as, as a, um, a platform for the people fighting for the people, thinking about what's in the best interest of the people that that's the kind of change in reform that, that I'm working to bring about, uh, in the party. But I think the forces that we're challenging here are actually much, uh, bigger than that. I mean, you got to give a lot of credit to the Republican party because the establishment Republicans, the last human being in the world that they wanted as to run for president on the Republican ticket was Donald J. Trump. And they tried hard to be him. They tried. But once he was in, they said, that's our president. And that's a very wise thing to do. And, and you know, that's, that that's where the fear is with a lot of Democrats that someone is going to go independent and that someone who is popular, perhaps you would go independent and suck a lot of the votes away from the Democratic party. People disagree with the direction it's going. And then that's how the Republicans would win. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not going to do that. I've, I've been asked that a ton of times since, uh, I don't know, months ago and every single time I've been asked, I've said the answer is no, I'm running to be the Democratic nominee. I will not run as a third party candidate. And I think that's something else that's, that's been interesting. And again, very transparent if you're paying attention is no matter how many times I answer that question from reporters and, and no matter how many times my answer is consistently the same, no. That was another thing that Hillary Clinton and others continue to point out like, Oh, well we think, we think she's going to run as a third party candidate and she's going to be the reason that Donald Trump wins. And all of a sudden, no, and they're, they're clearly trafficking and things that aren't true. Again, why to raise that question people's minds and to raise that suspicion and to, to do their best to try to, to undermine the support that we're getting from people.