Tulsi Gabbard Rips Into 'Power Elite', the 'Biden-Clinton-Neocon-Neolib Foreign Policy' at CPAC
© AP Photo / John Minchillo
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Earlier in February, after Special Counsel John Durham revealed that Hillary Clinton paid cyber-security experts to hack into Donald Trump's election campaign and even White House computer servers, former Democrat congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard accused the former secretary of state of stoking the Cold War with Russia, while undermining US democracy.
Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard raged against the “power elite” and “their co-conspirators in the mainstream media and the security state” as she delivered a keynote address at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando on Friday night.
As long as we are committed to this foundation of freedom enshrined in our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, we can work together through all the differences that we may have, to overcome the obstacles and challenges we face. @CPAC Watch full speech -> https://t.co/vpfh9BvkgZ pic.twitter.com/ERgrpBLxXa
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) February 26, 2022
The Hawaiian US Army Iraq War veteran, who sought the Democrat presidential nomination in 2020 before endorsing Joe Biden in March that year, slammed what she dubbed the “Biden-Clinton-neocon-neolib foreign policy,” saying that in an ideal world “our leaders would haul James Clapper”, Former Director of National Intelligence under Barack Obama, “before a judge to answer for his lies to Congress about how the government is collecting information… And they would support the Durham investigation and Clinton corruption in 2016... .”
Special Counsel John Durham has been investigating the legality of the FBI probe into the allegations of Donald Trump's collusion with Russia, which turned out to be unsubstantiated. While Trump earlier denounced the FBI's RussiaGate probe, officially known as "Crossfire Hurricane", as the "crime of the century", Moscow has repeatedly denied attempting to meddle in US domestic affairs during the 2016 election.
15 February 2022, 21:37 GMT
Gabbard, at this point in her Friday speech, was referring to the discovery by John Durham that Hillary Clinton paid cyber-security experts to hack into Trump's election campaign, White House computer servers, to help establish a "narrative" to back her false claim that the Republican ex-president “colluded” with Russia to defeat her in the 2016 election.
The American politician, who is of both Samoan and European descent, ripped Democrats and Republicans in Congress for ostensibly talking “a good game about civil liberties, but voting on the side of the “power elite” when it came to such things as scrapping “secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) courts… stopping “three letter agencies like the NSA, FBI and CIA from illegally spying on Americans.”
“The latest strategy and tactic that they're using is to try to undermine our free speech by taking it upon themselves to say they've got the responsibility to protect us from so called misinformation,” emphasised the former Hawaii congresswoman observed.
Furthermore, Gabbard said that rather than enter into a debate with those who criticise it, the current administration opts to instigate a “cancel culture” for detractors.
“I'm sure you've all heard them before. I have. Like today… Russian asset. White supremacist. Bigot. Racist. Extremist. Traitor,” she continued, pointing to the wording of a DHS.gov bulletin issued earlier in February, entitled: “Summary of Terrorism Threat to the U.S. Homeland.”
According to her, one is thrown into the crosshairs as an “enemy of the state” if one even questions the president, his administration on his policies.
Gabbard, who had quit her vice-chair post at the National Democratic Committee in 2016 to publicly support self-identifying democratic socialist Bernie Sanders’ run for the party’s presidential nomination, against Hillary Clinton, joked that once her speaking slot was announced “the blue checkmarks started lining up.”
“Hillary was right… Get her out of here,” she continued.
In 2019, Hillary Clinton suggested the Russians were "grooming" a Democrat in the presidential primary to run as a third-party candidate in a comment that appeared to be directed at Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
"She's the favourite of the Russians," Clinton had stated, speaking on a podcast with former Obama adviser David Plouffe. While there had been five women running for President at the time: Gabbard, California Sen. Kamala Harris, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and author Marianne Williamson, Clinton’s team had previously pointed to allegations that Russian news and propaganda sites often reported on Gabbard's campaign.
Gabbard, who always denied those allegations, responded on Twitter at the time, writing to sarcastically thank Hillary Clinton, the “queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party.”
Great! Thank you @HillaryClinton. You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain. From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a ...
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) October 18, 2019
Tulsi Gabbard attacked what she slammed as tribalism in the country, warning it was dangerous and “emblematic of an erosion of a spiritual foundation in this country.”
Gabbard concluded her remarks on an upbeat note, saying that the future path “will be lit by the fire of freedom that burns brightly in the hearts of Americans in every community.”
19 February 2022, 17:52 GMT
The four-day CPAC opened on 24 February with Donald Trump, who has not yet committed officially to a 2014 run, its headline speaker for the third day – Saturday.
Trump has numerously teased about launching another bid for the White House, once even referring to himself as the "47th" president while golfing.
