Former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard announced she left the Democratic Party on Tuesday, denouncing the organization as an "elitist cabal."
Invoking a full-on conspiracy theory, Gabbard took to Twitter to write, "I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are hostile to people of faith & spirituality, demonize the police & protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponize the national security state to go after political opponents, and above all, dragging us ever closer to nuclear war."
Gabbard, who served as the U.S. representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021, went on to call on other moderate Democrats to follow in her footsteps.
"I believe in a government that is of the people, by the people and for the people. Unfortunately, today's Democratic Party does not. Instead, it stands for a government that is of, by and for the powerful elite," she continued. "I'm calling on my fellow common sense, independent-minded Democrats to join me in leaving the Democratic Party."
During her presidential campaign, she highlighted an opposition to military interventionism, although she has called herself a "hawk" on terrorism. Her decision to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and her skepticism of claims that he had used chemical weapons were controversial.
In 2022, she blamed the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine on the Biden administration's foreign policy and argued against economic sanctions on Russia. Gabbard stated that the United States is trying to turn Ukraine into "another Afghanistan".
In March 2022, she said media freedom in Russia is "not so different" to that of the United States. A number of academic sources described her claim as false, saying that in Russia the government represses independent media and free speech, which includes imprisoning critics of the invasion of Ukraine.
Incidentally, the Security Service of Ukraine has placed Gabbard on a list of public figures whom it alleges promote Russian propaganda.
.jpg)