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Post by Admin on Jan 16, 2019 18:55:54 GMT
She made a name for herself as the leading congressional apologist for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. She made an enemy out of the Obama administration by siding with Republicans and blasting its refusal to say the phrase “radical Islam,” then undermined her own prior opposition to foreign wars by dubbing herself a “hawk” on terrorism. Reporters documented worrying ties to anti-LGBTQ groups — including one run by her father — and anti-Muslim Hindu nationalists. In 2016, Gabbard further alienated the party establishment by endorsing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. Despite this bold move, many on the party’s insurgent left remained skeptical of her views on foreign policy and Islam. If Sanders runs again in 2020, as many expect, it’s difficult to imagine more than a handful of his hardcore supporters defecting to Gabbard. Experts, writers, and political figures on both sides of the Democratic Party’s internal divide have told me the result is that a politician once hailed as the future of the party has no natural constituency and few powerful allies. (Gabbard’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment.) Now, anything is possible in politics; President Donald Trump is a living testament to that. But right now, Gabbard’s presidential bid does not seem like the juggernaut one would have expected from her back in 2012. The rise and fall of Tulsi Gabbard speaks to the demand in the Democratic Party for a principled antiwar voice — so much so that Gabbard, with all her flaws, managed to successfully occupy that niche for some time before crashing to earth. For Tulsi Gabbard, politics is a family business. Her mother, Carol Gabbard, was on Hawaii’s State Board of Education; her father, Mike Gabbard, was a political activist and Honolulu City Council member, best known in Hawaii for being one of the state’s leading opponents of LGBTQ equality. He founded an organization called Stop Promoting Homosexuality that opposed not only marriage equality but the very idea of tolerance for homosexuality itself. “Homosexuality is not normal, not healthy, morally and scripturally wrong,” he said in a 1992 interview, in which he also blamed the spread of AIDS on the repeal of sodomy laws. Mike Gabbard’s opposition to LGBTQ rights (as well as abortion) seemed to stem from his religious background. Born in Samoa, he is both Catholic and a member of an obscure offshoot of the Hare Krishna sect called the Science of Identity Foundation. The group’s leader, a self-described guru named Chris Butler, has condemned homosexuality, once arguing that it led to “an increasing number of American women [keeping] dogs for sexual purposes.’” Tulsi Gabbard grew up in Butler’s movement, which has faced allegations of cult-like practices. She told the New Yorker’s Kelefa Sanneh that he shaped her Hindu identity, speaking of her “gratitude to him for the gift of this wonderful spiritual practice that he has given to me.”
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Post by Admin on Jan 17, 2019 17:44:42 GMT
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard's antigay past has resurfaced after her Friday announcement that she plans to run for president. Over a decade ago, the Democratic politician, then a state representative, argued against a bill that would have legalized civil unions for same-sex couples in Hawaii. She also took aim at the "homosexual extremists" advocating for the issue, in a quotation that has been circulated on Twitter this weekend. “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,” Gabbard testified in February 2004. “As Democrats, we should be representing the views of the people, not a small number of homosexual extremists.” It was not the only time Gabbard decried "homosexual extremists." She used the phrase in a 2004 quotation in Honolulu Magazine to refer to perceived political opponents of her father, Mike Gabbard, who was running for Congress at the time.
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Post by Admin on Jan 18, 2019 17:59:47 GMT
Mike Gabbard was a prominent antigay activist in the Aloha state. He helmed The Alliance for Traditional Marriage, a political action committee that fought against marriage equality and other LGBTQ causes. The group also reportedly supported the discredited and harmful practice of "conversion therapy." Tulsi Gabbard has represented Hawaii's second congressional district since 2013, when she became the first Hindu member of the U.S. Congress. Now 37, she openly supports LGBTQ causes, including marriage equality. In 2017, Gabbard supported the Equality Act, which would have banned workplace discrimination for LGBTQ Americans. She is also a member of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus. Notably, the Human Rights Campaign awarded Gabbard a perfect score on its congressional scorecard, which measures politicians' support of LGBTQ causes.
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Post by Admin on Jan 31, 2019 17:33:40 GMT
Tulsi Gabbard’s presidential campaign hasn’t officially launched yet but it’s already melting down. Two-and-a-half weeks after the Hawaii Democrat told CNN she had decided to run for the White House—an announcement that even her own staff didn't know was coming, after weeks of debating the timing of the rollout—the 37-year-old congresswoman has struggled to contain the chaos. Campaign manager Rania Batrice and Gabbard’s consulting firm Revolution Messaging are set to depart after this weekend’s official kickoff in Hawaii, two sources familiar with the situation told POLITICO. Gabbard is leaning on her sister, Vrindavan, to fill the void. Meanwhile, the congresswoman is under fire back home after picking a fight with Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and a prominent Democratic state lawmaker is already challenging Gabbard in next year’s congressional primary. That means she faces the possibility of losing the presidential race and her House seat as well.
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Post by Admin on Feb 2, 2019 17:30:23 GMT
The Russian propaganda machine that tried to influence the 2016 U.S. election is now promoting the presidential aspirations of a controversial Hawaii Democrat who earlier this month declared her intention to run for president in 2020. An NBC News analysis of the main English-language news sites employed by Russia in its 2016 election meddling shows Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who is set to make her formal announcement Saturday, has become a favorite of the sites Moscow used when it interfered in 2016. Several experts who track websites and social media linked to the Kremlin have also seen what they believe may be the first stirrings of an upcoming Russian campaign of support for Gabbard. Since Gabbard announced her intention to run on Jan. 11, there have been at least 20 Gabbard stories on three major Moscow-based English-language websites affiliated with or supportive of the Russian government: RT, the Russian-owned TV outlet; Sputnik News, a radio outlet; and Russia Insider, a blog that experts say closely follows the Kremlin line. The CIA has called RT and Sputnik part of "Russia's state-run propaganda machine." All three sites celebrated Gabbard's announcement, defended her positions on Russia and her 2017 meeting with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, and attacked those who have suggested she is a pawn for Moscow. The coverage devoted to Gabbard, both in news and commentary, exceeds that afforded to any of the declared or rumored Democratic candidates despite Gabbard's lack of voter recognition.
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