ERIC ZUESSE -- When Did Tulsi Gabbard Become a Russian Asset?

When Did Tulsi Gabbard Become a Russian Asset?

Eric Zuesse

November 10, 2019

© Photo: Flickr / Gage Skidmore

On October 17th, Hillary Clinton did an hour-long podcast interview with David Plouffe, who had been Barack Obama’s 2008 Campaign Manager, and she spent over half the time on the topic of Russia’s destroying American democracy by using minor political parties to draw votes away from Democratic candidates but not away from Republican candidates, and she also accused Russia of using the internet in order to deceive Democratic Party voters into not voting, or else to vote for more-progressive third parties instead of for the Democratic Party’s nominees. Her underlying assumption was that Russia does all of this in order to cause Republican nominees to become elected. Whereas Joseph R. McCarthy, in the 1950s, accused the communist Soviet Union of infiltrating the US Government in order to place Democrats into control of the government, Hillary Clinton now is accusing non-communist Russia of doing something similar, in order to place Republicans in control.

Here will be presented the first full transcript of the complete passage in which Hillary Clinton accused both the Democratic Presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard (who has been a Representative in the US House of Representatives for 6 years) and the Green Party leader (who hasn’t ever held any elective governmental office) as being “Russian assets”; and, regarding Gabbard, alleged also that Russia is “grooming her to be the third-party candidate.” Hillary meant there that Russia, and those two “Russian assets,” are planning to do this so as to reduce the votes for whomever will be the Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee, and thus to throw the 2020 election to Donald Trump, like Ralph Nader threw the 2000 Presidential election to George W. Bush, by taking more votes away from Gore than away from Bush in both New Hampshire and Florida and thus actually enabling the Republican US Supreme Court to step in and choose Bush to be the US President. But Hillary never alleged that Nader had been “a Russian asset.” Maybe there isn’t a Russian under every rock, just like there isn’t a Jew under every rock. However, bigots can be found almost everywhere, and evil politicians of every political party can play them like a Paderewsky upon the keys. And Obama’s former campaign manager played right along with her.

Regarding this podcast, I warn anyone who clicks onto either of the two URLs to that podcast: it blasts one’s ears out and has no volume-control on it (at least on my system); so, I advise that, in order to save your ears, it might be safer just to read the transcript that I present of it, below:

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https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hillary-clinton/id1479487160?i=1000453830324

Apple Podcasts: Campaign HQ with David Plouffe

Th. 17 October 2019 David Plouffe interviews Hillary Clinton

https://podcasts.google.com/

Google Podcasts: Campaign HQ with David Plouffe

17 October 2017

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35:30-36:25: Hillary Clinton (referring to Russians): “They’re also going to do third party again. And, I’m not making any predictions but I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who’s currently in the Democratic primary, and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate. She’s the favorite of the Russians, they have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far, and that’s assuming Jill Stein will give it up which she might not because she’s also a Russian asset. She’s a Russian asset, I mean, totally, and so they know they can’t win without a third party candidate. And so I don’t know who it’s going to be but I guarantee they’ll have a vigorous third-party challenge — in the key states that they most need it.” [Commercial break]

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That’s all there is of it. The rest of the hour was mainly her regular accusations against Russia, which she has stated many times before, plus a bit of her thoughts about how Republicans deceive stupid voters (whom she once called a “the basket of deplorables” — as if she had none, or else a smaller “basket,” but surely a different “basket,” of them — whomever they might be) to vote for Republican nominees. So, Hillary promotes hatred of Russians for being evil and dangerous people, and contempt for Republicans, as their being Russians’ dupes. Maybe she hopes this way to win enough dupes of her own, in order to win something, other than the Senate seat from New York, which she did win, as the departing First Lady.

Since Jill Stein has no actual public-policy record, because she’s never been a public official, there is nothing to indicate to an intelligent voter what her polices and policy-priorities — as opposed to mere campaign-promises — are; but Tulsi Gabbard does have an actual policy-record, and it is approximately as hostile against Russia as that of most members of Congress. Here are some of her key votes, and statements explaining them, so that one can reasonably judge whether Gabbard is hostile, or friendly, toward Russia (since Hillary seems to think that Gabbard is deficiently hostile toward Russia):

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GABBARD AGAINST RUSSIA:

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2014/roll114.xml    6 March 2014

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2014/roll117.xml   11 March 2014

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2014/roll148.xml   27 March 2014

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2014/roll149.xml     1 April 2014

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2017/roll413.xml   25 July 2017

https://www.congress.gov/  12 Feb. 2015

https://www.congress.gov/  6 Jan. 2017

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Here is Gabbard’s press release in March 2014, specifically about her position regarding the overthrow in February 2014 of the democratically elected Ukrainian President who was very popular both in Crimea and in far eastern Ukraine and who refused to accept that Ukraine pay the full projected $160 billion cost which would be entailed if Ukraine were to join the European Union (which the US demanded that he accept):

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https://gabbard.house.gov/

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard: Russia Must Face Consequences for Continued Aggression in Ukraine

March 17, 2014 Press Release

Calls for US to offer weapons, military training assistance

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02) today released the following statement after the President’s announcement of expanded sanctions against Russian officials:

“Russia has violated the sovereignty and independence of the Ukrainian people, in direct contravention of its own treaty obligations and international law,” said Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, an Army combat veteran and member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “I support the sanctions announced today, and I strongly urge the President to go further and consider a broader range of consequences. If Russia is allowed to continue its aggressive push for control in Ukraine, there will be long-term, serious, and costly security risks for the United States and Europe. Russia must face serious consequences for their actions; the US must consider options that truly isolate Russia economically and diplomatically — not just sanction a handful of oligarchs — and send a message of unity and strength from the international community.

“We cannot stand by while Russia unilaterally degrades Ukraine’s territorial integrity. We must offer direct military assistance — defensive weapons, military supplies and training — to ensure Ukraine has adequate resources to respond to Russia’s aggressions and defend themselves. We cannot view Ukraine as an isolated incident. If we do not take seriously the threat of thinly veiled Russian aggression, and commit to aiding the people of Ukraine immediately, we will find ourselves in a more dangerous, expensive and disastrous situation in the future.”

In a House Foreign Affairs Committee mark-up of H.Res. 499 recently, the congresswoman gained unanimous approval on including amendments on anti-corruption, and protection of civil and political rights throughout Ukraine. She also supported the House passage of H.R. 4152, which authorized loan guarantees for Ukraine.

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So: she was just as determined as the rest of Congress to force the residents in Crimea and in far eastern Ukraine to accept the illegally imposed post-coup leaders that Victoria Nuland, President Obama’s point-person controlling the overthrow, chose to lead Ukraine. Nuland did it in this phone call, when she instructed the US Ambassador to Ukraine to have Arseniy Yatsenyuk, “Yats,” chosen to lead the country, and for the Ambassador not to allow the EU’s preferred person, “Klitch” or Vitaly Klitchko, to be appointed. She angrily said there, “Fuck the EU,” because “Klitch,” actually, wasn’t nearly as anti-Russian as “Yats.” And having “Klitch” even so much as work under “Yats, “It’s just not going to work,” she said. The EU’s choice — the person who didn’t seethe with hate for Russians — needed to be excluded, entirely, from serving in the new, US-imposed, government.

Here’s that phone-call:

A transcript of its main parts can be seen here:

http://archive.is/

The head of the ‘private CIA’ firm, Stratfor, called it “the most blatant coup in history.”

Tulsi Gabbard was just as supportive of this as were virtually all other members of Congress. So: when did Gabbard become a “Russian asset?”

If one clicks onto the votes that she had made in 2014, 2015, and 2017, when the big anti-Russian bills were being voted on in Congress, she was just as hostile toward Russia as the others were, wasn’t she?

So: when did it happen?

Frankly, if Gabbard remains in that Party, and doesn’t try to form a less war-mongering party to replace today’s rabidly neoconservative (like the Republicans are) Democratic Party, and to present an authentically progressive alternative to the fascism of both of America’s two existing, billionaire-backed, Parties, then would she really be a supporter of ending America’s “regime-change wars” — the string of US invasions and coups to overthrow governments that are allied with, or even merely friendly toward, Russia — as she claims to be? How can she stay in either of the existing Parties, if she doesn’t support regime-change wars? These wars are intended to isolate and ultimately destroy Russia: these wars are waged only against Russia-friendly or -allied countries, which never invaded, nor even threatened to invade, the United States. Who is she, if she doesn’t separate herself from both neoconservative Parties, which Hillary now dares her to do? Does Tulsi Gabbard really oppose “regime-change wars”?

Hillary Clinton condemns Tulsi Gabbard actually for opposing regime-change wars, but Gabbard’s voting record in Congress is almost as supportive of those wars as the rest of Congress is. So: what is Clinton’s complaint?

Gabbard claims to despise Hillary Clinton, but Gabbard has voted mostly for the initiatives in Congress that Ms. Clinton had helped to lead. (Victoria Nuland is a close friend of Hillary’s.) If Gabbard actually will split from the Democratic Party, then I, for one, would vote for her against both the Democratic and the Republican Parties, because I am anti-fascist, and both of today’s Parties are fascist. But she would need to explain why she condemns both Parties though supporting their regime-change wars and coups.

The choice between two fascist Parties isn’t any democracy — none at all. But I’m not sure where Tulsi Gabbard really stands, on the necessity to give Americans a real choice, real democracy. That’s not clear. It’s not clear where she actually stands.

George W. Bush invaded Iraq in 2003. Barack Obama invaded Libya in 2011, and Syria in 2012-. What’s to choose between such fascists? It that democracy? It’s empire, and empire was sought by the Axis powers in World War II — three imperialistic fascist countries: Germany, Italy, and Japan. America is now imperialistic fascist. Does Tulsi Gabbard really support that? If not, then why has she voted in Congress for it (just like virtually all other members of Congress — none of whom condemn “regime-change wars,” as she does)?

Where does she really stand? That’s the actual question about her, not “When did Tulsi Gabbard become a Russian asset?” Hillary simply lies about that (even if Gabbard does end up running as a third-party candidate).