UNITED STATES – OCTOBER 1: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, attends a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere hearing in Rayburn Building, October 1, 2014, on Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi who is imprisoned in Mexico. Tahmooressi, who suffers from PTSD, has been held in Mexico since being arrested in March for carrying guns across the border. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
After Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard gave Kamala Harris a figurative black eye on Wednesday night’s 2020 Democrat debate stage, Gabbard’s been the talk of the digital town.
The thing is, it would appear that the major leftist networks don’t appreciate Gabbard bruising the chances of Harris, their favored candidate, and in almost every interview from cable news networks that I’ve seen, the only one to give her a fair shake is Fox News. Meanwhile, MSNBC and CNN have gone on the attack.
The angle seems to be to play up Gabbard’s meeting with the Assad regime in Syria three years ago. Gabbard has been confronted on this multiple times throughout her career, but now with it back in the spotlight thanks to a comeback by Harris in a CNN interview, the media has zeroed in on it again.
“This coming from someone who has been an apologist for an individual, Assad, who has murdered the people of his country like cockroaches,” said Harris in response to Gabbard’s attack on her corrupt criminal justice history.
Gabbard appeared on CNN with Chris Cuomo who immediately launched after her with the Assad meeting, even telling her what she needs to do.
“You need to acknowledge that Bashar al-Assad is a murderous despot, and you can still make your argument that the United States has no business risking blood and treasure in places where it should not be,” said Cuomo. “I don’t understand why you didn’t give that answer last night.”
With one fell swoop, Cuomo made it sound as if Gabbard was actually in league with the Assad regime. Gabbard didn’t take it lying down, however.
Gabbard responded by saying she doesn’t disagree with Cuomo and acknowledged that Assad is a brutal dictator in the same vein of Sadam Hussein, and made the case that wars against such dictators have been baseless and wasteful, especially of human lives.
Cuomo attempted to interrupt her, saying she’s putting herself in a hole, but Gabbard continued.
“I will never apologize for doing all that I can to prevent more of my brothers and sisters in uniform from being sent into harm’s way to fight in these wasteful, counter-productive regime change wars. Even if it means meeting with a brutal dictator.”
Gabbard went on to talk about not fighting these wars in order to save lives and taxpayer dollars, but Cuomo seemed dead set on tarnishing Gabbard’s stance and accused her of defending Assad from her own website. Gabbard countered by clarifying that it wasn’t a defense, but an expressed skepticism that would lend to making sure the U.S. stays out of a war with Syria.
Cuomo still didn’t seem pleased and noted that none of Gabbard’s evidence exonerates Assad, which Gabbard had already said she wasn’t trying to do.
The second attack happened on MSNBC, and here we see Gabbard becoming frustrated over the Assad questioning. Gabbard points out that this meeting happened three years ago, and yet the media still rakes her over the coals about it.
Gabbard became so frustrated that she accused MSNBC of throwing out talking points from the Harris campaign as the MSNBC host continuously tried to interrupt her.
Tulsi Gabbard explodes on MSNBC after they repeatedly press her for meeting Bashar al-Assad, who gasses children: "these are talking points that Kamala Harris and her campaign are feeding you because she’s refusing to address the questions"
Gabbard claims it's "propaganda" pic.twitter.com/FvRMs23RFR
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) August 1, 2019
While I have zero intention of ever voting for Gabbard, I do find her struggles against the Democrat party and the opposition she’s finding from the mainstream news networks fascinating. In a way, I can’t help but sympathize with her, seeing as how she’s getting the same treatment anyone on the right gets from these networks.
It’s interesting to watch these networks seem to scramble to nail Gabbard on the very thing Harris brought up and attack her on it. Meanwhile, Harris seems to be getting softballs thrown at her from the same media.
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