Quote: When Donald Trump named Tulsi Gabbard for the National Intelligence job, Russian State TV put together a long detailed many part Sizzle reel of all the TV appearances in which she has repeated Kremlin talking points. Only thing she was known for was her anti-homosexuality, home schooled by Hare Krishna... "Rachel Maddow on Tulsi Gabbard: Six things about Trump's pick for director of national intelligence"
TRANSCRIPT, video at bottom:
Maddow: Here are six things to know about Donald Trump's pick to be the Director of National Intelligence. She is former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. Thing number one:
First thing to know about Tulsi Gabbard is that she started off life as an anti-homosexuality activist, which is a thing you can be in your life.
Tulsi
Gabbard was homeschooled her whole life except for two years she reportedly
spent in the Philippines attending a Hari Krishna School run by Disciples of
the self-proclaimed Guru that she and her family follow, a group that has defectors
who say it's an abusive authoritarian cult. More on that in a moment.
But
while Tulsi Gabbard was being homeschooled in Hawaii her dad was founding and
leading a whole Litany of anti-gay organizations in Hawaii. He even had an
anti-gay radio show called Let's Talk Straight Hawaii. The whole point of the
radio show the whole point of every episode of the radio show was how terrible
gay people are. Must have been amazing show.
Her
father once flew from Hawaii all the way to North Carolina to lead a protest against
there being a gay character on Dawson's Creek. He was very devoted to his cause.
***
Gabbard
is anti gay marriage, pro conversion therapy
***
As
part of her own anti-gay fervor, Tulsi Gabbard campaigned to ban gay people
from getting married. She led a protest to ban gay people even from being
allowed to have civil unions. She worked for an anti-gay organization that said
gay people should be subjected to conversion therapy to cure them, so won't be
gay anymore.
Perhaps
needless to say but conversion therapy is neither therapy nor does it convert anyone
but that's thing number one to know about her.
Thing
number two, after years in which the only thing she was known for was her
anti-homosexuality activism when Tulsi Gabbard decided to get into politics. More
broadly when she decided to run for Congress as a Democrat in blue state Hawaii.
She
started apologizing for her anti-gay past saying she had changed and she didn't
believe any of those anti-gay things anymore.
Now
that she has left Democratic Party politics, Tulsi Gabbard has reverted back to
form. She introduced an anti-trans bill just before she left Congress in 2020. A couple years later she enthusiastically
endorsed Ron desantis's Don't Say Gay bill in Florida.
By
2023 she was giving a speech at CPAC about gay people being nefarious child molesters.
So
yeah she's back to her roots. She changed, then she just changed right back,
that's thing number two.
Thing
number three about that supposed cult thing, Tulsi Gabbard’s family moved to Hawaii
in 1983 to join the Disciples of this self-proclaimed Guru in Hawaii. His name
is Chris Butler. He had started an offshoot there of the Hari Krishna movement
starting in the 1970s. Chris Butler's group made multiple efforts to get their
members into politics to get members of the group into elected office.
Most
of the time those efforts failed after exposes in the local press that these
candidates were all followers of the same mysterious Hari Krishna Guru.
But
with Tulsi Gabbard they finally made it.
As
the first one of his disciples really hit it big in public Politics, the guru
Chris Butler told the New Yorker magazine that it was like a music teacher who
quote taught one of his students cello and oh this student of mine is now
playing cello in the Philharmonic Orchestra, he said, quote, and it's beautiful.
That same New Yorker profile reports quote some former members portrayed themselves as survivors of an abusive cult quote
*
Survivors
of an abusive cult
*
Defectors
tell stories of children discouraged by Butler from attending secular schools,
of followers forbidden to speak publicly about the group, of returning travelers
quarantined for days lest they transmit a contagious disease to Chris Butler,
of devotee's lying prostrate whenever he entered the room or adding bits of his
nail clippings to their food or eating spoonfuls of sand that he had walked upon.
For
her part Tulsi Gabbard says it's not a cult definitely not.
That's
thing number three.
Thing
number four, when Tulsi Gabbard ran for the democratic nomination for president
of the United States in the 2020 election, she literally moved to the state of
New Hampshire ahead of the primary there. She rented a house in New Hampshire
and moved in. She nevertheless only got 3% of the vote in New Hampshire. Tulsi
Gabbard, perhaps it will not surprise you to hear this, proclaimed the 2020
presidential contest to be rigged, to be rigged against her, because otherwise
obviously she'd be winning.
*
She
was endorsed for president by David Duke, the KKK leader,
*
She
was endorsed for president by David Duke, the KKK leader, so you know, who
knows, maybe we don't truly understand the depth of her support.
Gabbard's
bottom of the barrel presidential campaign did take up a lot of her time though.
So much so that while she was campaigning, she missed 85% of the votes that
happened in Congress, 85% she so abandoned her congressional seat during that
campaign that there were high-profile calls from Democrats in Hawaii that she
should just make it official and resign her seat so her constituents could put
somebody in there who was actually going to show up and do the job.
Tulsi
Gabbard did not resign. She did make it to work for one important vote. She did
make it to work for Donald Trump's first impeachment and that was kind of a strange
thing for her to go out of her way to appear in Washington for. Because she
ended up being the only member of the House who voted on the first Trump impeachment
but she refused to vote Yes or no.
She
did show up for that vote but she just voted present that's thing number four.
Thing
number five it's the Russia thing.
You've
probably heard something about this since Donald Trump announced that he wants
to make her Director of National Intelligence, you might have seen quotes like
this one emerging on Capitol Hill.
Once
Trump announced that he was picking her, quote, behind closed doors people
think she might be compromised.
*
There
are members of our conference who think she is a Russian asset, said the
Republican Senator aide.
*I
Like
it's not hyperbole there are members of our conference who think she is a
Russian asset, said the Republican Senator.
Tulsi
Gabbard has insisted over and over again that she's definitely not a Russian
asset. She has no idea why people keep saying that that. Said Russian State
media has described her as a quote Russian agent. They've also described her as
our quote girlfriend.
Russian State media also lost their minds with happiness When Donald Trump named Tulsi Gabbard for the National Intelligence job, Russian State TV put together a long detailed many part Sizzle reel of all the TV appearances in which she has repeated Kremlin talking points. In 2015 Tulsi Gabard took a trip … [watch the video here]
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