Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard called for censure instead of impeachment. Dec. 18 she was absent on the floor of the House until vote time when she voted “present” on the articles of impeachment against Donald Trump. These things, along with her behavior of the last few years, show that she clearly is not trying to represent the constituents of Hawaii. I believe she is now disqualified for any statewide or federal elected position.
Let me remind you of the highlights, though not all her transgressions:
There was the trip to Syria where she wasn’t going to meet with Assad, but oops, she did meet with Assad, it turned out. To this day, she defends his brutal attacks on his own people and falsely stating that the U.S. entered Syria with the goal of regime change.
She rushed into Trump Tower after the election, giving legitimacy to Donald Trump, while most Democratic Party members and many Republicans were still questioning the validity of the election. The rumors were that she was jockeying for the Secretary of State position, but that was never verified.
Since then, she has spent much more time attacking fellow Democrats than she has Republicans or Donald Trump.
When Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono was undergoing cancer treatment, there was public reporting that Tulsi was already considering a run for Hirono’s Senate seat. Hirono’s recovery kyboshed that, but it didn’t stop Tulsi from publicly criticizing Hirono’s targeted questioning of one of Donald Trump’s judicial appointees.
When the Mueller Report was released, Tulsi immediately put out a video, when she obviously hadn’t read the report, saying there was no collusion, rather it was time for the country to move on. (If you’ve read the report, it doesn’t say that, and it documents very serious evidence of Trump campaign coordination with the Russian attack on our election and 10 documented instances of obstruction of justice by Trump.)
Early in this primary election, she said the primary was “rigged” against her, despite the Democratic Party clearly outlining its guidelines for debates, etc., in advance. “Rigged” is a word that Trump started using in the 2016 election.
During one interview, she responded to a reporter, “That’s fake news.” This is another attack-on-journalism phrase originated by Donald Trump.
Kamala Harris was in the top three of the Democratic primary candidates this year until Tulsi attacked her record during the debate. Politifact.org labeled the attack on Ms. Harris as “misleading.” Since that time, Kamala tanked in the polls and subsequently had to withdraw from the race.
She publicly attacked Hillary Clinton over a story that the New York Times misquoted. Hillary beat Donald Trump by 32 points in Hawaii in 2016 but Hillary receives Tulsi’s criticism while Trump rarely does.
While our Sens. Schatz and Hirono have fought against the blatant crimes and abuses of the Trump administration, Tulsi has appeared on Fox News weekly, often on the show of white nationalist Tucker Carlson. She criticizes more Democratic media for not inviting her on, not wanting to hear “her voice,” while those in the more-left-leaning media say that she ignores their invitations. She’d rather be on Fox News attacking the Democratic Party.
There’s more, but these are the highlights. Hawaii is a bright blue state and we deserve representation as such. If you analyze all of these, there really are only three possible reasons for Tulsi’s behavior:
1) She’s a DINO — a Democrat in name only — and really hasn’t abandoned her father’s far-right political career positions;
2) She’s some type of witting or unwitting Russian asset, determined to run a third-party presidential campaign that will again split the Democratic vote like Jill Stein did in 2016;
3) She’s just so wildly ambitious and attention-hungry that she’ll do anything to set herself apart and get national attention as quickly as possible through whatever means necessary.
None of these is sound representation of Hawaii.
If she runs third-party, she deserves our disdain. If she late files to run for re-election, we must not allow her to succeed. She has failed to represent the people of Hawaii consistently and is disqualified from any statewide office. She’s no longer qualified for federal office, at least not as a Democrat.
Tulsi obviously has another master than her constituents in Hawaii. If it’s just her ego or something more nefarious, it really doesn’t matter. We deserve better.
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Jason Blake is a resident of Lihue.
