Tulsi Gabbard, Trump Tower Meeting, RW contacts, and Russia

[crazytown]

Last edited Mon Feb 25, 2019, 12:02 PM - Edit history (3)

Trump Tower Meeting, RW contacts, and Russia
Statement by Gabbard and Articles, posted without Comment.

U.S. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02) today released the following statement on her meeting with President-elect Donald Trump regarding Syria:

"President-elect Trump asked me to meet with him about our current policies regarding Syria, our fight against terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS, as well as other foreign policy challenges we face. I felt it important to take the opportunity to meet with the President-elect now before the drumbeats of war that neocons have been beating drag us into an escalation of the war to overthrow the Syrian government—a war which has already cost hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions of refugees to flee their homes in search of safety for themselves and their families.

“While the rules of political expediency would say I should have refused to meet with President-elect Trump, I never have and never will play politics with American and Syrian lives.

“Serving the people of Hawaiʻi and our nation is an honor and responsibility that I do not take lightly. Representing the aloha spirit and diversity of the people of Hawaiʻi, I will continue to seek common ground to deliver results that best serve all Americans, as I have tried to do during my time in Congress.

“Where I disagree with President-elect Trump on issues, I will not hesitate to express that disagreement. However, I believe we can disagree, even strongly, but still come together on issues that matter to the American people and affect their daily lives. We cannot allow continued divisiveness to destroy our country.

“President-elect Trump and I had a frank and positive conversation in which we discussed a variety of foreign policy issues in depth. I shared with him my grave concerns that escalating the war in Syria by implementing a so-called no fly/safe zonewould be disastrous for the Syrian people, our country, and the world. It would lead to more death and suffering, exacerbate the refugee crisis, strengthen ISIS and al-Qaeda, and bring us into a direct conflict with Russia which could result in a nuclear war.. We discussed my bill to end our country’s illegal war to overthrow the Syrian government, and the need to focus our precious resources on rebuilding our own country, and on defeating al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other terrorist groups who pose a threat to the American people.

“For years, the issue of ending interventionist, regime change warfare has been one of my top priorities. This was the major reason I ran for Congress—I saw firsthand the cost of war, and the lives lost due to the interventionist warmongering policies our country has pursued for far too long.

“Let me be clear, I will never allow partisanship to undermine our national security when the lives of countless people lay in the balance."

https://gabbard.house.gov/news/press-releases/gabbard-statement-meeting-president-elect-donald-trump

Bannon set up Trump-Gabbard meeting

Bannon, who hates the entrenched two-party system, has long admired Gabbard. She’s an Iraq War veteran with an independent streak. Bannon, a navy veteran, was drawn to her when she began publicly excoriating the Obama administration over its plan to defeat ISIS.

“He loves Tulsi Gabbard. Loves her,” a second source familiar with Bannon’s thinking told The Hill. “Wants to work with her on everything.”

“She would fit perfectly too [inside the administration],” the source added. “She gets the foreign policy stuff, the Islamic terrorism stuff.” ...

A search of "Gabbard" in the Breitbart News archive turns up five pages of archived stories, many of them reported over the past year.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/307106-bannon-set-up-trump-gabbard-meeting


Why Conservative Media and the Far Right Love Tulsi Gabbard for President

In May 2015, the National Review implored readers to “Meet the Beautiful, Tough Young Democrat Who’s Turning Heads by Challenging Obama’s Foreign Policy.” The conservative outlet touted Gabbard as having “endeared herself to right-wing hawks” by challenging Obama’s “rudderless” foreign policy. “I like her thinking a lot,” American Enterprise Institute president Arthur Brooks was quoted as saying.



Gabbard has also maintained friendly relationships with high-profile, right-leaning television personalities, including Carlson and Fox News colleague Neil Cavuto, a long-time anchor and Trump skeptic who leans conservative on business issues.

And earlier this month, after she accused her fellow Democratic senators of engaging in “religious bigotry” for asking questions about a Trump judicial nominee’s faith, she received yet another round of Fox News praise. Todd Starnes, a Fox pundit with a long history of anti-gay comments, wrote in an op-ed that he found Gabbard’s comments “encouraging.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-conservative-media-and-the-far-right-love-tulsi-gabbard-for-president

Tulsi Gabbard Hires Russian Agent to Keep Hawaii Media in Check

Russia has lots of experience in media censorship. So perhaps it is logical that Rep Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI-2) hires an agent of the Russian government as a ‘consultant’ to keep Hawaii media under control.

But Gabbard’s consultant, Chris Cooper of the Potomac Square Group, is no ordinary Russian agent. Cooper is allegedly one of seven identified as being at the center of illegal Russian lobbying efforts reaching into the Trump campaign and Congress.

http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/20879/Tulsi-Gabbard-Hires-Russian-Agent-to-Keep-Hawaii-Media-in-Check.aspx

Russia's propaganda machine discovers 2020 Democratic candidate Tulsi Gabbard

The Russian propaganda machine that tried to influence the 2016 U.S. election is now promoting the presidential aspirations of a controversial Hawaii Democrat who earlier this month declared her intention to run for president in 2020.

An NBC News analysis of the main English-language news sites employed by Russia in its 2016 election meddling shows Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who is set to make her formal announcement Saturday, has become a favorite of the sites Moscow used when it interfered in 2016. ...

Since Gabbard announced her intention to run on Jan. 11, there have been at least 20 Gabbard stories on three major Moscow-based English-language websites affiliated with or supportive of the Russian government: RT, the Russian-owned TV outlet; Sputnik News, a radio outlet; and Russia Insider, a blog that experts say closely follows the Kremlin line. The CIA has called RT and Sputnik part of "Russia's state-run propaganda machine."

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/russia-s-propaganda-machine-discovers-2020-democratic-candidate-tulsi-gabbard-n964261

With the benefit of hind sight, President Elect tЯump may have preferred Tulsi’s ‘intelligence’ on Syria, to the briefings by the US Government.

[dawg day]

1. Gee, interesting that Bannon reached out to an obscure new congressperson....

... When Steve Bannon wants you, it's like the devil offering you an apple.
Find some polite way to beg off.

[crazytown]

2. Nostrovia

[NurseJackie]

3. "Bannon set up Trump-Gabbard meeting" --- That tells me all I need to know.

Bannon set up Trump-Gabbard meeting

That tells me all I need to know.

[disillusioned73]

4. You know how I can tell..

Tulsi's anti-war stances are resonating with the American people?? Because there's been a non-stop campaign to smear & "guilt by association" her since she announced.. even fluff show "The View" had all the pro-war
talking points lined up when they had her on...

I keep asking this question, but ppl refuse to answer - why are Dems lining up behind the dangerous traitor that is Trump and the republican party on regime change in Venezuela - also giving him the biggest war budget EVER?? I'd really like to hear an answer - stop dancing & answer.. Anyone...bueller??

[dawg day]

5. You know, Trump talked a good game about being anti-war and all that too.

Point is-- I don't BELIEVE either of them. Doing what Putin wants might correspond momentarily with "anti-war," but you'll have to forgive me if I conclude that Putin's puppets aren't really reliable when they talk about "peace". Trump did too, remember, and is now carrying out the foreign policy that Putin wants. Trump didn't run as a dangerous traitor, after all... he snuck in as something else. You know, the snake in the grass.

Who knows about Gabbard-- but frankly, with so many good candidates who have no connection to Putin, what's so special about her? And don't go with "what she says." We know from Trump that candidates can SAY just the opposite of what they intend to do. What does she do that you think is impressive?

[disillusioned73]

7. Oh..

so all the support Trump is getting for Venezuela is a quazi-triple-decker chess game move by Dem leadership.. man, i just can't keep up.. so, how am I supposed to know when the "resistance" is genuine vs 3 dimensional Jedi mind tricks??

What was giving him a $700+ billion war budget going to do exactly?? Are they giving him the rope to hang himself somehow - I just don't see the "resistance" angle here...

[crazytown]

6. Briefing Bannon, Fox and Friends

Deserve what you get.

[disillusioned73]

8. Exhibit A - Like I said..

You know how I can tell Tulsi's anti-war stances are resonating with the American people?? Because there's been a non-stop campaign to smear & "guilt by association" her since she announced..

[crazytown]

9. 'Resonating with the American people'

Is this a cut and paste from RT?

[disillusioned73]

10. Hahaha..

that is just lazy.. find a knew narrative - this one ain't working..

[crazytown]

11. Let's say it's an unusual expression

like something plucked off Google Translate.

[disillusioned73]

14. I also speak spanish..

quieres que hable en espanol??.. quieres que te llame nombres??... Tu no tienes la inteligencia para competir en una conversación inteligente.. so dejas los adultos que no crean en los monstros de Rusia y que quieren acabar con todas las guerras que los estados unidos empezó en los últimos casi 20 años..

Translate that..

[WeekiWater]

31. There is a bit of hypocrisy in this.

Please don't get me wrong, I think you are overall correct when it comes to how you are being debated.


But why question name calling just to turn around and infer that they are a child? It's passive aggressive name calling.

[disillusioned73]

40. When someone infers I am some kinda..

russian stooge, civility is out the window.. just like trump, no substance just demeaning insults will receive them in kind..

I hope my translator worked...

[WeekiWater]

41. Civility didn't go out the window.

I see how you were being debated. Unfairly, IMO. You just called them out for something you then did in the next sentence.

That is an accurate summation. I wouldn't have noticed had it not been written in Spanish. That made the post stick out.

[disillusioned73]

44. I would have done it in Russian..

but it's a lil rusty

[Adrahil]

13. Really? Has she broken 1% support yet?

I do not trust her. Not even a little bit.

She is going to go down in flames very early in the process.

[Devil Child]

23. If you use DU: Primaries forum as your measure than no Rep. Gabbard hasn't

Feel free to dismiss her for not breaking 1% here. But if you are gauging viability off DU numbers then will you also discard O'Rourke, Booker, Buttigieg, Castro, etc..

As far as going down in flames... Possibly so, but that doesn't stop my support for Rep. Gabbard. Plus as I've said before look on the bright side, you can always have her downfall to look forward too and crow about if and when it occurs.

[Shemp Howard]

12. Smear job? Oh, yes.

Gabbard is not my first or second choice. But I agree with you, at least here. The title of the original post was - before an edit - "Tulsi Gabbard, Useful Idiot". So, yes. This was a Gabbard smear from the beginning.

The title alone invalidates the rest of the article, IMHO.

[crazytown]

15. Useful Idiot means Russian Sympathiser as you know

If she is not a ‘Useful Idiot’ she is doing such a brilliant impression of one, the distinction is meaningless.

[disillusioned73]

16. Oh, how convenient..

Own it..

"Tulsi Gabbard, Useful Idiot"

[crazytown]

17. I do. Proudly.

Goes in and tells Tump that a no fly zone could lead to nuclear war. I’ll wear it with pride. She’s a Useful Idiot in every sense of the word.

[Shemp Howard]

18. Gabbard is right about the no-fly zone!

As I noted earlier, I'm not a Gabbard supporter. So I am a bit surprised to find myself defending her. But here goes.

Two points:

1. Who are we (the United States) to demand a no-fly zone over a foreign country? The mere thought of it is crazy. Congress never declared war on Syria. Yet we have the right to dictate who can fly there, and who cannot?

2. Such a no-fly zone can lead to a nuclear war. It is very, very unlikely. But it is surely possible. Trump is a bully. And so is Putin. You think Putin would just accept a no-fly humiliation? I don't. You ever watch two fools arguing on the street? Neither one wants to back down. Then maybe one throws a punch. Then maybe the other one pulls a knife.

[crazytown]

19. If there is one thing the USA / Russian Federation know

it’s how to avoid incidents in each other’s declared airspace’s. Tulsi’s comment’s on nuclear war are absurd.

This is all History. The Syrian war is over. In my view the right side won, the government, but I abhor the tactics they used.

[Shemp Howard]

24. You are missing something.

You said "If there is one thing the USA / Russian Federation know it’s how to avoid incidents in each other’s declared airspace’s." I agree with that. But your statement holds only when BOTH sides agree on whose airspace it is.

Russian planes are careful when near Alaska. And American planes are careful when near Siberia.

So who owns Syrian airspace? It's Syria, obviously. And the Syrians invited the Russians in. We have no claim to Syrian airspace. And the Russians will not accept any claims that we do.

What happens when there is no general agreement? Mistakes happen. Escalations happen. And yes, that can lead to war. Just like in the summer of 1914. It's a dice roll we don't need to make.

[crazytown]

28. Disagree (partly)

1. GPS makes airspace borders crystal clear.

2. Even with lines drawn, minor errors don’t escalate into WWIII. Turkey shot down Russian planes, America shot down Syrian planes.

3. The highest priority is given by both the USA and Russia to avoiding nuclear war for the same reason - no one wins.

4. The problem with no fly-zones in Syria (from my perspective) is they would have prolonged a civil war that could have only one outcome - a Syrian Government victory.

5. If The government had lost, the civil war would have just began - ISIS, Al-Nusra Front, Hizbollah, SNC, YPG and all the undeclared proxies. That conflict could have drawn in Israel, Iran and Turkey.

War serves nodody’s interest but the deranged and the profiteers. My 2c

[Shemp Howard]

36. You are still missing something.

You said "GPS makes airspace borders crystal clear."

True. But, again, that's important only when BOTH SIDES agree on who owns that airspace. So if Trump says "We are declaring a no-fly zone over parts of Syria. And Mr. Putin, here are the GPS coordinates of that no-fly zone."

Do you think Putin will just say "thank you"? No way. He'll have to test that no-fly zone, if only to save face. So a Russian plane will fly high above that zone. Then it will be up to the United States to fire the first shot. The United States will be the aggressor.

You also mentioned that Turkey shot down Russian planes, and America shot down Syrian planes. True. But things will move to a whole different level once Russian and American planes start shooting each other down.

Then - perhaps - it's August of 1914 all over again. So to me it's crystal clear that Gabbard is right about this. A no-fly zone in Syria can lead to war, even nuclear war.

I'll give you the last word on this, crazytown. It has been an interesting conversation. And thanks for keeping it civil!

[crazytown]

38. Thank you 2

[Devil Child]

25. Useful idiots those who offer blank checks for our military intervention in foreign nation-states

Plenty of those about abound.

[Devil Child]

20. Appreciate your post dissillusioned73

I wonder the same questions as you do.

[disillusioned73]

21. As you see..

NO ONE ever replies in ernest.. very telling, if there is a valid reason I'd like to hear it..

[crazytown]

22. OK I'll answer it.

I am no more in favour of American intervention in Venezuela, than I favored Russian intervention in the 2016 elections

You approve of Trump pulling out of Syria - so don’t pretend that every foreign policy move can be judged by the character of the CiC. Starting a civil war in Venezuela is in nobody’s interests, anymore than prolonging the civil war in Syria served their people

But Tulsi thought she could advance she could advance the cause of peace by telling the President Elect he might start a nuclear war? She’s an idiot. Period.

[Devil Child]

27. Where you see idiocy I see a respectable attempt to make her case to an innafectual CiC

I do not see the conclusion of nuclear war as idiocy. I don't see that as foregone conclusion and I doubt Rep. Gabbard did as well. To dismiss the possibility of nuclear war from rapid escalation with events occurring within enforcement of a no-fly zone is taking an ostrich approach to potential dangers. There have been numerous incidents of the various players in Syria shooting down each-other's aircraft and engaging in needless brinkmanship or escalation.

[crazytown]

29. See 28.

[Cha]

39. Hahaha.. Gabbard's "anti-war stance"..

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Me.]

26. KR

[watoos]

30. Wow, we are eating our own.

The only way we lose in 2020 is if we fight among ourselves. Tulsi did 2 tours in the ME, she met with Assad. She has more experience to draw from to form an opinion about Syria and Venezuela for that matter than the rest of our candidates.

I keep reminding people that there was only one Democratic member of the House who voted against going into Iraq, Barbara Lee. I guess everyone else was wrong, ehh? Tulsi experienced war up close and personal which to me gives her credence.

My only attribute for my choice for president is that he or she has to be tough as nails. I haven't decided on a choice yet, but Tulsi is one of my choices who fits that bill.

We are making a big mistake tearing apart our candidates, it's what the right wingers want us to do. I wish we could just be more positive and not in-fight. Give me the name of your favorite candidate, anyone, and I can tear them to shreds here. None of our candidates are perfect but all of them are way better than Donald Trump.

[crazytown]

33. "eating our own"

Tulsi represents Tulsi. She was representing herself when she met Trump. She was representing herself when she met Assad. She was not presenting the Decomcratic Party or Congress. She’s the worst sort of loose cannon, the amateur who does no know what she doesn’t know.

You tell me, what was she doing when she met tЯump? What unique insights could she present. Bannon arranged the meeting. They thought it could be politically useful to them. Was she thinking about the Democratic Party? An executive position perhaps?

She’s clueless. A useful Idiot.

[Devil Child]

35. Damn good post watoos!

I too wish the cannibalization of our primary candidates would stop. I would love to hear less of "YOUR candidate won't win" and more of "this is who I support and why."

[disillusioned73]

45. Then they would have to talk about policies..

and that is not the point of all this - it's to eliminate the "undesirables" & keep the acceptable candidates in the horse race.. 2008/2016 served as a valuable lesson..

[disillusioned73]

42. You'll get no good faith arguements here..

it's all twisted with Trump & Russian associations but yet when Pelosi & Schumer & many others run to stand behind Trump in regards to Venezuela regime change for oil that is allllll cool... we all know what this is about - it is 2016 all over again.. Some will never let it go..

Just as the unions/labor have been abandoned so has the "peace" movement.. these 2 issues are party-less - it's why Ind is the largest registered "party"

[sheshe2]

32. K&R

[forklift]

34. Tulsi should not have run at all

She should be supporting Bernie like last time.

They are ideologically matched plus Bernie has a lot more experience than her.

Maybe she is eyeing for the VP slot when Bernie wins the primaries in a landslide.

[crazytown]

37. I agree.

I don’t see the point in her candidacy. Sen Sanders is trying to put together ‘the greatest grassroots movement in American history’. If this is the strategy, she’s a distraction and an obstacle. As I said in an other comment she represents herself - not a movement, not a party, just her own unique self. The lessons of 2016 paased her by (my 2c)

[disillusioned73]

43. Shhhh.. ;)