Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) took direct aim at twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in a scathing op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, stressing that she is running for president in order to “undo Mrs. Clinton’s failed legacy.”
Gabbard, who has been in the thick of a contentious back and forth with the former Trump challenger, ripped Clinton in a scathing op-ed, harkening back to the former secretary of state’s “foreign-policy catastrophes” and citing them as a “primary” reason for her resignation as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 2016. Gabbard, as she has alluded before, said Clinton and her allies have never forgiven her for backing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in 2016, adding, “the smears have been nonstop ever since.”
“Hardly a week goes by when I’m not asked a question about how I’m being secretly backed by Russia or other foreign powers—on top of countless other falsehoods intended to destroy my reputation,” Gabbard wrote, asserting that “those who are indebted to the war machine and the overreaching intelligence agencies, as well as their cheerleaders in the media” are hellbent on taking her down because “they know they can’t control me.”
She continued:
This isn’t a petty “spat” between Mrs. Clinton and me. It’s a serious contrast in views about the choice voters face as they decide which Democratic candidate is best equipped to defeat President Trump. Mrs. Clinton already lost to Mr. Trump once. Why would Democrats think a Hillary 2.0 candidate would result in anything different?
Whether Mrs. Clinton’s name is on the ballot or not, her foreign policy will be, as many of the Democratic candidates adhere to her doctrine of acting as the world’s police, using the tools of war to overthrow governments we don’t like, wasting taxpayer dollars, costing American lives, causing suffering and destruction abroad, and undermining America’s security.
Gabbard, while stressing that she is not an isolationist, said her administration would work to contrast Clinton’s foreign policy failures and stop the U.S. role as the world’s police.
“I will lead with a robust, positive foreign policy based on diplomacy and cooperation rather than confrontation and conflict,” Gabbard wrote.
“Those who follow the Bush-Clinton doctrine believe the only way to interact with other nations is by bombing them or starving them with draconian sanctions,” she continued, referencing her status as a veteran and experience on the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees.
“Only when we recognize the failings of the past—embodied by Mrs. Clinton and her minions in the media—can we move forward to a future of peace, dignity, transparency and aloha,” Gabbard concluded.
Clinton sparked the recent war of words with Gabbard after describing the presidential hopeful as a “favorite of the Russians” and implying that Gabbard is a “Russian asset.”
“She is a favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far. That’s assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not because she is also a Russian asset,” Clinton stated during a podcast interview with former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe.
“They [Republicans] know they can’t win without a third-party candidate, and so I do not know who it’s going to be, but I can guarantee you they will have a vigorous third-party challenge in the key states that they most need it,” Clinton added.
Gabbard responded, calling Clinton the “queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long.”
She announced last week that she will not seek re-election in order to focus entirely on her presidential bid.