Tulsi Gabbard, a former congresswoman from Hawaii and 2020 presidential candidate, stated she is now not a member of the Democratic Occasion.
In a video assertion posted to Twitter, Gabbard defined her determination to go away, regardless of holding a number of places of work as a Democrat since 2002, together with vice chair of the Democratic Nationwide Committee from 2013 to 2016.
She stated the social gathering is “now beneath the entire management of an elitist cabal of warmongers” and stated it’s pushed by “wokeness,” the time period usually used to explain political correctness.
In her video, she accused the social gathering of dividing Individuals, amongst different issues. “I imagine in a authorities that’s of, by, and for the folks,” she stated. “Sadly, right now’s Democratic Occasion doesn’t.”
Gabbard stated she believes the social gathering “stands for a authorities of, by, and for the highly effective elite,” and stated she “can now not abdomen the course that so-called woke Democratic Occasion ideologues are taking our nation, I invite you to affix me.”
In an extended model of the video posted on YouTube, Gabbard stated when she first declared herself a Democrat, she was impressed by those that stood up in opposition to the Vietnam Conflict, individuals who fought for plantation employees in Hawaii and leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Nevertheless, she is now a critic of President Biden and the social gathering.
The video was posted as the primary episode on the “Tulsi Gabbard Present” YouTube web page, which will even be a podcast by the identical title, hosted by Gabbard.
Gabbard rose by the ranks as a Democratic member of the Hawaii Home of Representatives, a member of the Honolulu metropolis council after which a Democratic member of U.S. Home of Representatives. She was the primary Hindu elected to Congress.
In 2019, she introduced her 2020 presidential marketing campaign. She went up in opposition to 9 different Democrats who dropped out through the primaries and was the second to final to drop out, simply earlier than Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont. Biden, the tenth candidate, remained because the social gathering’s nominee and was later elected president.
As a result of she is a Nationwide Guard veteran, who did two excursions within the Center East, she took a two-week absence from her marketing campaign to report for energetic obligation with the Hawaiian Military Nationwide Guard in Indonesia.
Through the 2016 presidential election, she campaigned for candidate Bernie Sanders, however she has been powerful on each Democrats and Republicans prior to now.
After Trump was elected, she met with the then-president-elect to debate her opposition to creating a no-fly zone over Syria, saying it will “result in extra demise and struggling.” She admitted the assembly was uncommon however stated partisanship won’t ever “undermine our nationwide safety when the lives of numerous folks lay within the stability.”
In 2018, Gabbard modified her tune, writing in a tweet that Trump is “Saudi Arabia’s bitch” for saying the U.S. will stand with Saudi Arabia, no matter any intelligence group evaluation on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s involvement within the killing of Washington Submit columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
In 2019, she accused then-Sen. Kamala Harris, who was additionally operating for president, of staging a “political ploy” to smear former Vice President Joe Biden’s status and his document on civil rights. She stated on CBS Information’ “Red & Blue” that Harris had been “leveling this accusation that Joe Biden is a racist — when he is clearly not — as a method to attempt to smear him.” She additionally tweeted a similar sentiment. Harris by no means accused Biden of racial animus, and particularly stated “I don’t imagine you’re a racist” earlier than confronting him on stage on the debate.
In 2020 she sued Hillary Clinton, alleging within the lawsuit that Clinton lied about Gabbard when she made derogatory feedback in October 2019 in an effort to harm Gabbard’s bid for the White Home. She ultimately dropped the lawsuit.
Throughout her presidential campaign, she tried to attraction to independents and Trump voters with a populist, anti-war message, however struggled to achieve assist from mainstream Democrats through the primaries. “[S]he is pulling from Trump voters. It might make it even harder for Trump to win, significantly in states like Michigan and New Hampshire,” Steve Bannon instructed CBS Information in January 2020.
She did not seek reelection in Congress throughout her presidential run and left the chamber in 2021. She did, nonetheless, keep politically energetic and spoke on the Conservative Political Motion Convention, an annual convention attended by Republican voters and politicians.
