Tulsi Gabbard, a former Congresswoman from Hawaii and a 2020 presidential candidate, said she is no longer a member of the Democratic Party.
In a video message posted on Twitter, Gabbard explained her decision to step down despite having served in several Democrat positions since 2002, including Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2013 to 2016.
She said the party is “now under the complete control of an elite cabal of warmongers” and said it is driven by “vitalism,” a term often used to describe political correctness. In her video, she accused the party of dividing Americans, among other things. “I believe in government by the people and for the people,” she said. “Unfortunately, the Democratic Party doesn’t do that today.” Adding that she thought the party was “pro-government and on the part of the powerful elite,” she said that she “can no longer tolerate the direction that the so-called democratic ideologists of our country are taking, I invite you to join. “
I can not do it anymore remain in today’s Democratic Party, which is now under complete control of elite clique of warmongers, driven by a cowardly awakening, who divide us by racial discrimination against everyone issue and incite anti-white racism, actively work to our common God-given freedoms are… rice.twitter.com/oAuTnxZldf
— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) October 11, 2022
In a longer version of the YouTube video, Gabbard said that when she first declared herself a Democrat, she was inspired by those who opposed the Vietnam War, people who fought for Hawaiian farm workers, and leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. -Jr. and Robert Kennedy. However, she is now a critic of President Biden and the party.
Gabbard rose through the ranks as a Democrat in the Hawaiian House of Representatives, a member of the Honolulu City Council, and then a Democrat in the United States House of Representatives. She was the first Hindu woman to be elected to Congress.
In 2019, she announced her 2020 presidential campaign. She faced nine other Democrats who pulled out during the primaries and was the last to pull out before Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Biden, the tenth candidate, remained the party’s nominee and was later elected president.
After Trump’s election, she met with the then president-elect to discuss her opposition to a no-fly zone over Syria, saying it would “lead to more death and suffering.” She acknowledged that the meeting was unusual, but stated that partisanship would not “undermine our national security when countless lives are at stake.”
In 2019, Senator Kamala Harris, who was running for president, accused her of a “political ploy” to discredit former Vice President Joe Biden and his civil rights record. She said on CBS News’ Red & Blue that Harris was “accusing Joe Biden of being racist when he clearly isn’t, to try and discredit him.”
In 2020, she sued Hillary Clinton, alleging in the lawsuit that Clinton lied about Gabbard when she made derogatory comments in October 2019 in an attempt to damage Gabbard’s White House nomination. As a result, the claim was dropped.
During her presidential campaign, she tried to reach independents and Trump voters with a populist anti-war message, but struggled to garner support from mainstream Democrats during the primaries.
