Read on Twitter
Is Bernie a Russian Asset?
Part 4: Bernie’s suspicious 2015-16 relationship with Tulsi Gabbard.
In 2015, Gabbard used her position as DNC Vice Chair to help Bernie get more debates and avoid punishment for stealing Hillary’s voter data, only to quit the DNC and endorse Bernie.
Part 4: Bernie’s suspicious 2015-16 relationship with Tulsi Gabbard.
In 2015, Gabbard used her position as DNC Vice Chair to help Bernie get more debates and avoid punishment for stealing Hillary’s voter data, only to quit the DNC and endorse Bernie.
At the beginning of his Presidential campaign in June and July of 2015, Bernie began loudly calling for as many debates as possible in the Democratic primaries.
At the same time, Tulsi Gabbard was Vice Chair of the DNC and was arguing with DNC leadership in favor of Bernie’s call for more debates. In September 2015, Gabbard took the unusual step of going public with her call for more debates. https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/641757424597254144
On September 30, 2015, Russia bombed targets in Syria. Russia claimed it was bombing ISIS, but US Intelligence concluded Russia was actually bombing CIA-backed Syrian rebels who opposed Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad, a close ally of Vladimir Putin. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/01/world/europe/russia-airstrikes-syria.html
On October 1, 2015, shortly after going public with her demand for more debates, Gabbard, a sitting Congresswoman and DNC official, took Putin’s side and undermined US Intelligence by publicly claiming Russia was bombing terrorists rather than anti-Assad rebels.
Just two days later, on October 3, 2015, Bernie echoed Gabbard’s defiance of US Intelligence and publicly stated his opposition to imposing a no-fly zone against Russia in Syria, in contrast to Hillary who supported a no-fly zone against Russia. https://www.cnn.com/2015/10/03/politics/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-no-fly-zone/index.html
On October 13, 2015, just before the first Dem primary debate, Gabbard claimed the DNC was silencing her calls for more debates by “disinviting” her to the debate, which the DNC denied. Bernie responded by inviting Gabbard to attend as his guest. https://www.cnn.com/2015/10/12/politics/bernie-sanders-tulsi-gabbard-dnc-debate/index.html
At that first debate on October 13, 2015, Hillary said she agreed with US Intelligence that Russia was bombing anti-Assad rebels in Syria and was in favor of a no-fly on Russia. Bernie again sided with Gabbard and opposed hitting Russia with a no-fly zone.
In December 2015, Gabbard introduced legislation in Congress supporting Assad against US intervention in Syria. https://twitter.com/TulsiPress/status/675457603510525952
On December 12, 2015, Bernie’s campaign exploited a flaw in DNC software to steal Hillary’s voter data. While an audit was performed to determine the extent of the breach, Sanders was denied access to DNC voter data. More here, including a link to @lizburgh’s deep dive: https://twitter.com/JusticeDemWatch/status/1347584965068861441
On December 18, 2015, Gabbard—as Vice Chair of the DNC—publicly stated her opposition to the DNC’s punishment of Bernie, tweeting out an interview she gave CNN stating that Bernie should immediately be given access to DNC voter data despite his theft of Hillary’s data. https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/678057731983568896
The next Dem primary debate was the next day, December 19, 2015. At that debate, Hillary said Assad should be removed from power, while Bernie said the US should instead collaborate with Russia and hope for Assad to be removed from power through elections.
Bernie’s position on Assad was the exact same as Donald Trump’s position on Assad. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-dictators-idUSKBN0U30RG20151220
On December 21, 2015, Gabbard tweeted that Obama and Putin should set aside their differences and work together to defeat ISIS, again undermining US Intelligence’s conclusion that Russian aggression in Syria was supporting Assad, not fighting ISIS.
In January of 2016, Bernie continued to press for more debates while Gabbard insisted that the debates focus more on the candidates’ positions on national security and war, by which she meant they should focus on Syria.
In February 2016, after Bernie was crushed by Hillary in South Carolina, Gabbard resigned her position as Vice Chair of the DNC to enable her to formally endorse Bernie for President. https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/703979557062369280
Gabbard spent the next several months campaigning for Bernie and, even after his defeat was certain, she nominated him for President at the Democratic National Convention in July 2016 (a role filled by AOC in 2020). https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/757953089416548352
Gabbard’s relentless advocacy for Bernie Sanders while serving as DNC Vice Chair, and the relentless advocacy by both Gabbard and Bernie for Putin’s interest in Syria, raises the obvious question of whether they were working together for the express purpose of benefiting Putin.
When the time came for debates between Hillary and Trump, Gabbard mounted a relentless public campaign calling for the candidates to debate their positions on Syria, on which Gabbard agreed with Trump and where she and Trump both supported Putin.
After the debate, Gabbard celebrated her success in having Syria feature in the debate and her ability to help Trump by making Hillary look like a war-mongerer. https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/789172873990549508
in November 2016, shortly after Trump’s victory in the 2016 election, Gabbard met with Donald Trump in Trump Tower to discuss Trump’s policy on Syria and her push to protect Assad from US aggression. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/why-democratic-rep-tulsi-gabbard-met-donald-trump-n686976
In January 2017, shortly after meeting with Trump, Gabbard flew to Syria for a highly unusual meeting with Assad, and hid the meeting from Democratic leadership.
This meeting was clearly a back-channel from Trump to Assad with Gabbard as the go-between. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/26/tulsi-gabbard-bashar-al-assad-syria-democrats
This meeting was clearly a back-channel from Trump to Assad with Gabbard as the go-between. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/26/tulsi-gabbard-bashar-al-assad-syria-democrats
In April 2017, when Assad gassed his own citizens, Gabbard again supported Assad and worked to undermine US Intelligence’s conclusion that Assad had committed war crimes: https://twitter.com/CNN/status/850477149895131136
It’s clear that Gabbard worked hard from 2015-2017 to advance Putin’s interests in Syria. So why was Bernie Sanders accepting aid and comfort from an obvious Putin puppet?
Was there a quid pro quo between Gabbard and Bernie or were they *both* Putin puppets?
Was there a quid pro quo between Gabbard and Bernie or were they *both* Putin puppets?
Part 5 of “Is Bernie a Russian Asset?” will explore the suspicious relationship between Bernie and Tulsi in 2019-2020, where they coordinated their presidential campaigns, received Russian support, and each worked to obfuscate and deny Russian support for the other.
Found this tweet today, where Tad Devine endorsed WaPo’s view of the 2016 arrangement between Bernie and Tulsi as a quid pro quo where Tulsi agreed to endorse Bernie in return for Bernie offering Tulsi “a platform on war and peace” (aka, to shill for a pro-Putin policy on Assad). https://twitter.com/taddevine/status/708263473503989760
