It’s the latest line of attack against one of Donald Trump’s nominees: former Democratic Rep. Tusli Gabbard, nominated for Director of National Intelligence, is a Russian asset.
“I think she’s compromised,” said Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat. “The U.S. intelligence community has identified her as having troubling relationships with America’s foes.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, meanwhile, has said she’s in “Putin’s pocket.”
Even The Associated Press had to acknowledge that claims of her being a “Russian asset” are “without evidence.” So where are they coming from?
From the ghost of Hillary Clinton past, just in case you don’t remember. Megyn Kelly does, and in a viral clip from an interview on fitness guru Jillian Michaels’ podcast, she broke down exactly how it happened.
Just a recap: Gabbard, a former Hawaii congresswoman, gained the ire of Hillary when she endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential bid. She further gained Democrat ire when ran for president in 2020 and essentially ended Sen. Kamala Harris’ chances on a debate stage, in addition to her habit of questioning traditional Democrat shibboleths.
That’s when Hillary started attacking — and tying her to Russia. Gabbard would eventually leave the party, first becoming an independent and then joining the Republicans after endorsing Donald Trump.
But why? That’s what Kelly laid out on Michaels’ show.
“This was started by Hillary Clinton. She started it because Tulsi was a rising star within Democratic politics,” Kelly said.
Do you like Tulsi Gabbard?
“She had all the boxes checked. She was a woman. She is a minority (half-Samoan), she was the first this and the first that, she was a combat vet, beautiful, well spoken — like, amazing,” Kelly said.
“Then she started to be kind of open minded to what Bernie Sanders was saying and maybe had some problems with the Hillary Clinton messaging and having Hillary shoved down our throat as the Democratic nominee back in ’16, and spoke up about it and started to make enemies in the party because of that.”
“Then she was outraged when she found out the DNC cheated on behalf of Hillary to try to make sure she got the nomination and screwed Bernie, and she was angry and a rift was formed,” she continued.
“Then Hillary Clinton called her a Russian asset, just like Hillary Clinton’s campaign was the one that made up that Donald Trump was a Russian asset,” she said.
“The Steele dossier,” Michaels noted, jaw dropped.
“Her campaign made up all the stuff about there being a server in Trump Tower” connected to Russia’s Alfa Bank, and that “Don Jr. was using it to communicate” to the Russians, Kelly noted.
“Hillary Clinton absolutely loved making up lies in her campaign about the Russians interfering in against anybody who she didn’t like or wanted to undermine,” Kelly added. “Tulsi was just one of them.”
Megyn Kelly breaks down the Tulsi Gabbard is a Russian Asset Hoax.
“This was started by Hillary Clinton. She started it because Tulsi was a rising star within democratic politics.
She had all the boxes checked. She was a woman. She is a minority, she was the first this and the… pic.twitter.com/qTvZoK1icP
— End Tribalism in Politics (@EndTribalism) November 21, 2024
Fuller context of the remarks here from the “Keeping it Real Podcast,” published last week:
And, indeed, Hillary was Patient Zero for the “Tulsi is a Russian asset” scam — although, when she began pumping the innuendos into the American discourse during an interview in 2019, there was a bit more circumspection.
“I’m not making any predictions, but I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate,” Clinton said on a podcast, according to CNN. “She’s the favorite of the Russians … They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far.”
Tulsi didn’t end up being a third-party candidate and the evidence, such as it is, that she’s a “Russian asset” seems to be that she questions the neoliberal consensus regarding Moscow’s motives — which has turned out to be wrong again and again, but why let facts get in the way of this stuff? Hillary said it, it must be true.
Just like Trump and Russia. Oh, wait…
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