Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard is pushing back at Hillary Clinton’s recent remarks insinuating that the U.S. Representative from Hawaii is a pawn of Russia and the Kremlin.
“Look, it’s outrageous,” Gabbard said Tuesday during Coins2Day’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C. Gabbard then reiterated some of her recent public remarks lambasting Clinton’s record on foreign policy, including the former secretary of state’s vote supporting the 2003 Iraq War when she was a U.S. Senator.
“Hillary Clinton throughout her career has espoused, advocated, and championed a very interventionist foreign policy, pushing for regime-change wars, toppling dictators in other countries, being the world’s police, using draconian sanctions to accomplish these things, and they have proven to be incredibly destructive,” Gabbard said.
Gabbard’s comments are part of an ongoing feud between the two politicians that began last week and has elevated Gabbard’s public profile significantly. It started when Clinton remarked on a podcast that an unspecified Democratic presidential candidate, widely believed to be Gabbard, was “the favorite of the Russians.”
While Gabbard did not qualify for the Democratic primary debates in September, she did qualify for the October debates. If she does not qualify for the November debates, she said she would still continue her campaign. She then said that she would not run as a third-party candidate.
“It’s incredible how many times I get asked that question,” Gabbard said when asked if she would consider a third-party run. “I am calling out my own party and I am calling out what I see as a corruptive influence in my party.”
Gabbard criticized the Democratic Party for imposing certain requirements that determine who gets to participate in the primary debates, a process she believes favors certain candidates over others.
She added that she was running for the Democratic nomination in order to “take it back from those who have been advocating for more regime-change wars.”
Gabbard also commented on her late decision to support the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
“I have long been concerned that pursuing impeachment, especially driven by partisan reasons, is really, really bad for the country,” Gabbard said. Recent developments, like the allegations brought forth by an anonymous whistleblower about Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, led Gabbard to change her mind.
She said, though, that she is not a fan of the lack of transparency surrounding the current impeachment process, much of which is occurring outside of the public eye.
“I think that this has the potential to undermine the integrity of what should be a non-partisan investigation,” Gabbard said.
More must-read stories from Coins2Day’s MPW Summit:
—How a corporate board can engage on company culture
—Female directors agree a “blunt instrument is necessary” to get women on boards
—How to avoid the biggest ‘decision trap’ in business
—Peloton’s CFO has “so much sympathy” for WeWork
—Corporate pivots are often disruptive. They don’t have to be
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