Rep. Tulsi Gabbard offered a more detailed response to Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, saying she’s running for president to undo the “failed legacy” of Mrs. Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and former secretary of state.
“From Iraq to Libya to Syria, her record is replete with foreign-policy catastrophes,” Ms. Gabbard, Hawaii Democrat, wrote in a piece in the Wall Street Journal. “It’s a primary reason why I resigned as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 2016 to endorse Bernie Sanders. Mrs. Clinton and the powerful media and political network she built up over decades have never forgiven this slight. The smears have been nonstop ever since.”
On a recent podcast, Mrs. Clinton suggested that Ms. Gabbard was being “groomed” to mount a third-party presidential bid to boost President Trump’s reelection chances.
Ms. Gabbard has previously said she won’t run third party if she doesn’t win the Democratic presidential nomination. She recently announced she won’t seek reelection to Congress in 2020.
Ms. Gabbard said in the piece that she swore an oath to “only one authority: the U.S. Constitution.”
She said the back-and-forth isn’t a petty “spat,” but rather a serious contrast in views.
“Mrs. Clinton already lost to Mr. Trump once. Why would Democrats think a Hillary 2.0 candidate would result in anything different?” she said.
“Whether Mrs. Clinton’s name is on the ballot or not, her foreign policy will be, as 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.
Ms. Gabbard said people who follow the “Bush-Clinton doctrine” believe “the only way to interact with other nations is by bombing them or starving them with draconian sanctions.”
“Only when we recognize the failings of the past — embodied by Mrs. Clinton and her minions in the media — can we move forward to a future of peace, dignity, transparency and aloha,” she concluded.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.