Tulsi Gabbard Doubles Down, Says Undoing Hillary Clinton's 'Failed Legacy' Is the Goal of Her Campaign
Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard doubled down once again this week in an effort to fend off attacks from recent political rival Hillary Clinton.
Gabbard did not mince words Wednesday, lambasting her party’s 2016 nominee in a fiery Wall Street Journal Op-Ed that sought to dispel allegations of her being a spoiler candidate in the 2020 Democratic primary and bring attention to Clinton’s “failed legacy.”
For the four-term Hawaiian representative, the 2020 presidential election is not merely about defeating President Donald Trump, Gabbard wrote, but also removing a cancer from the Democratic Party: the hawkish “Clinton doctrine.”
“As a major in the National Guard who served in Iraq — one of the many disastrous regime-change wars Mrs. Clinton championed over her career — I swore an oath to only one authority: the U.S. Constitution,” Gabbard wrote.
“I’m running for president to undo Mrs. Clinton’s failed legacy. From Iraq to Libya to Syria, her record is replete with foreign-policy catastrophes,” she added.
“I Can Defeat Trump and the Clinton Doctrine.”
From @WSJopinion: As president, I would reverse the damage the Bush-Clinton doctrine has done to America and the world, writes @TulsiGabbard https://t.co/X1NpFIsP6z
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 30, 2019
Gabbard’s scathing Op-Ed comes at the end of a month laden with animosity between the two Democrats, diametrically opposed on matters of foreign policy.
Clinton kicked up the controversy just two weeks ago, telling popular left-wing podcast host David Plouffe she agreed with media theories the congresswoman was actually a “favorite of the Russians,” according to CNN.
“I’m not making any predictions,” she said, “but I think [the Russians have] got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate.”
A Clinton representative would later claim the former secretary of state had misspoken and meant to allege Gabbard was a Republican Party plant.
Clinton herself has yet to correct the record, however.
And Gabbard — having faced much establishment media speculation, and outright bashing, for breaking with Democratic Party orthodoxy — was quick and unmerciful in her response.
Thanking the failed 2016 Democratic nominee for stepping out from “behind the curtain” as the mastermind behind media attempts to “destroy” Gabbard’s reputation, the congresswoman slammed Clinton as “queen of warmongers” and the “embodiment of corruption.”
“It’s now clear that this primary is between you and me,” Gabbard tweeted. “Don’t cowardly hide behind your proxies. Join the race directly.”
… concerted campaign to destroy my reputation. We wondered who was behind it and why. Now we know — it was always you, through your proxies and …
— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) October 18, 2019
… powerful allies in the corporate media and war machine, afraid of the threat I pose.
It’s now clear that this primary is between you and me. Don’t cowardly hide behind your proxies. Join the race directly.
— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) October 18, 2019
According to Gabbard’s Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, however, October’s incidents were far from the start of Clinton’s vendetta against her.
The congresswoman cited her resignation “as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 2016 to endorse [Vermont Sen.] Bernie Sanders” as the moment bad blood began boiling between the two.
“Mrs. Clinton and the powerful media and political network she built up over decades have never forgiven this slight,” Gabbard wrote. “The smears have been nonstop ever since.”
And as those smears began to increase in frequency and grow closer in time, political commentators and strategists such as Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon have begun to pose the question: Is Clinton preparing to run for president a third time by jumping into the 2020 race?
Longtime advisers stoked the flames of such speculation last week, saying the former Democratic nominee’s attention-grabbing actions are suspect.
In fact, aide Phillipe Reines confirmed to Fox News that Clinton has not “foreclosed” on the possibility of another shot at the White House.
Clinton has not publicly addressed campaigning in light of this month’s back-and-forth.
But Gabbard argued Wednesday that an official campaign from Clinton would not be necessary for her hawkish foreign policy to be represented in the race.
“Whether Mrs. Clinton’s name is on the ballot or not, her foreign policy will be,” Gabbard wrote.
“Many of the Democratic candidates adhere to her doctrine of acting as the world’s police, using the tools of war to overthrow governments we don’t like, wasting taxpayer dollars, costing American lives, causing suffering and destruction abroad, and undermining America’s security,” she continued.
“A Gabbard presidency would mean the end of trying to police the world.”
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