Raised in a fringe religious movement? Secret bio-labs? A Russian plant?! Just what is Tulsi Gabbard's whole deal?
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00:00Raised in a fringe religious movement? Secret biolabs? A Russian plant? Just what is Tulsi
00:07Gabbard's whole deal? Tulsi Gabbard's parents were acolytes of the Science of Identity Foundation,
00:13a counterculture religious community founded by spiritual leader Chris Butler in the 1970s,
00:18according to Intelligencer. Butler founded the belief system as an offshoot of International
00:23Society for Krishna Consciousness, or the Hindu Hare Krishna movement near Kailua, Oahu.
00:29There, Gabbard's parents brought up their children under the guru's guidance,
00:33an alchemical mixture of Hindi practices, Catholic strictures,
00:37and 1970 ideals of strict vegetarianism, scientific skepticism, body and spirit dualism,
00:43criticism of consumerism, strict sexual mores, and intense homophobia.
00:49You see, the body is just like a pair of clothes we're wearing.
00:53Our real identity is we are spirits, we are spiritual beings.
00:57Though the Science of Identity Foundation describes respect for people of different
01:00races, ethnicities, or religions on its homepage, its founder Butler has received
01:05negative press for Islamophobic commentary. In 2019, Butler was quoted in a video posted
01:11to Twitter as saying,
01:12"'The Mohammedan philosophy, Islam, is so full of violence. It's so low-class.
01:17It's so Mickey Mouse. It's so violent. You're completely allowed to kill all infidels.'"
01:22According to The New Yorker, Gabbard referred to Butler as her spiritual guide in 2015.
01:28But Gabbard has since been publicly silent about the SIF leader,
01:31conspicuously refusing to identify the spiritual group as a major influence.
01:36Tulsi Gabbard attended Leeward Community College to study television production,
01:40but did not receive a degree. In 2002, she ran for the Hawaiian State Legislature,
01:45and became the youngest person to represent Hawaii's 42nd House District at 21 years old.
01:50Gabbard withdrew from seeking re-election two years later,
01:53instead volunteering for the U.S. Army National Guard. However, her name remained on the ballot,
01:58as she had already filed to run. At a 2004 Honolulu press conference, she said,
02:04"'My fellow legislators have assured me that they will cover for me,
02:07that they will be involved in my district and make certain that the people of my
02:10district are well taken care of while I'm on active military duty and in Iraq.'"
02:15Representative Rita Cabanilla eventually won the seat.
02:18Gabbard would go on to earn a bachelor's degree in international business in 2009
02:22from Hawaii Pacific University. From 2008 to 2009, Tulsi Gabbard was deployed to Kuwait,
02:29where she became one of the first women to enter a Kuwaiti military facility.
02:33This achievement not only broke with tradition,
02:35but earned her an award of appreciation from the Kuwait National Guard along the way.
02:39The U.S. Office of the Historian notes that Kuwait began a relationship with the U.S.
02:44even before it was a country. An American consulate first opened there in 1951.
02:49Though Kuwait is a constitutional emirate ruled by the Sabah family with executive power shared
02:54with an elected assembly, according to the Kuwaiti government website, the state is Islamic
02:59and therefore guided by Sharia law. According to the Egyptian Islamic Advisory Board, Dar al-Iftah,
03:05the Quran states that women can work as long as the job is safe,
03:09suits women's physical and mental makeup, and is deemed permissible by Sharia law.
03:14Gabbard's Kuwaiti service broke at least two of those strictures,
03:17forging a path and a record of women in the military in a Sunni Muslim nation.
03:21I love our country.
03:23Tulsi Gabbard grew up practicing capoeira, a Brazilian martial art that blends dance,
03:28music, and acrobatics. And she is also fluent in other martial arts.
03:32The former representative suggested that this lifelong practice helped develop her
03:36rebellious stance in a tweet.
03:38I started practicing martial arts as a kid and trained capoeira for many years,
03:42an art that originated with slaves in Brazil as a form of resistance.
03:45Gabbard is such a mixed martial arts fan that she helped former UFC women's strawweight champion
03:50Jong Whaley overcome visa issues to re-enter the U.S.
03:54While how much of a role the representative played in greasing Jong's way is up for debate,
03:58the partnership led to an unexpected friendship.
04:01The pair even sparred for the cameras upon Jong's 2019 return to the States.
04:06Jong posted on Instagram in 2019,
04:09Today I had the honor to meet and train with Ms. Tulsi Gabbard,
04:12and she is a very strong martial artist. It is a happy day when martial arts brings people together.
04:18In 2012, Tulsi Gabbard became the first Hindu member of Congress. In 2013,
04:24she became the first elected congressperson to swear their oath of office on the sacred
04:28Hindu text, the Bhagavad Gita. Gabbard said of the experience,
04:32I chose to take the oath of office with my personal copy of the Bhagavad Gita,
04:36because its teachings have inspired me to strive to be a servant leader,
04:39dedicating my life in the service of others and my country.
04:43My Gita has been a tremendous source of inner peace and strength through many tough challenges
04:47in life, including being in the midst of death and turmoil while serving our country in the Middle
04:52East. The daughter of a Roman Catholic father and a Caucasian Hindu mother, Gabbard's first name
04:57derives from the Sanskrit word for holy basil, which Hindus regard as a sacred plant. Gabbard
05:03believes that these non-traditional roots do not hinder her political aspirations.
05:07She told The Atlantic,
05:09Absolutely, a Hindu can be in the White House one day. When you look at the national issues
05:13that our country is facing, people are not qualified or disqualified because of their
05:17spiritual practice. People are looking for someone they can trust.
05:20Tulsi Gabbard is an outspoken opponent of the entire Washington, D.C., power structure.
05:25On September 13, 2022, she tweeted,
05:28There is indeed a serious domestic threat to our democracy,
05:32the unholy alliance of permanent Washington, the national security apparatus, big tech,
05:37and the mainstream propaganda media to target tens of millions of ordinary Americans as domestic
05:42terrorists. This broad condemnation has earned Gabbard some contradictory political bedfellows.
05:48She resigned from the Democratic National Committee to endorse Bernie Sanders in 2016,
05:53and she spoke at the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference.
05:57Liberals love her fierce environmentalism,
06:00and conservative Republicans celebrate her critical stances on homosexuality.
06:04Politico reports that Gabbard supports progressive issues like single-payer healthcare
06:08and a $15-per-hour minimum wage. However, she is a regular guest on Fox News shows criticizing
06:15President Joe Biden, especially his foreign policy decisions associated with Russia and Ukraine.
06:20While guest-hosting Tucker Carlson Tonight, Gabbard informed her Fox News audience that
06:25Attorney General Merrick Garland's actions in raiding former President Donald Trump's
06:29home at the Mar-a-Lago club have, quote,
06:31"...all hallmarks of a dictatorship."
06:34The FBI's raid on Mar-a-Lago changed the country that we grew up in."
06:38In September 2019, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry
06:44after a whistleblower charged that sitting President Donald Trump solicited political
06:48favors from Ukraine in exchange for $400 million in aid. Pelosi said during the announcement,
06:54"...the actions of the Trump presidency reveal the dishonorable fact of the president's betrayal
06:58of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security, and betrayal of the integrity of our
07:03elections." In an unexpected move, Tulsi Gabbard only voted present in a referendum that fell
07:09almost completely along party lines, with only two Democrats voting against impeachment and zero
07:15Republicans voting for it.
07:17"...Article 1 is adopted."
07:20This party-line vote, Gabbard indicated in a lengthy statement, was the very reason for
07:25her abstention. While she indicated her belief that Trump was culpable, Gabbard decided to voice
07:30her concerns, labeling the impeachment process as, quote, "...fueled by tribal animosities that
07:35have so gravely divided our country." She wrote,
07:38"...my vote today is a vote for much-needed reconciliation,
07:42and hope that together we can heal our country. I am confident that the American people will
07:46decide to deliver a resounding rebuke of President Trump's innumerable improprieties
07:51and abuses, and they will express that judgment at the ballot box."
07:55Just a few months before Tulsi Gabbard would decline to seek re-election to Congress to
07:59pursue further political goals, she made a stand for her fellow veterans, sponsoring
08:04an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act to allow military members to consume hemp
08:08products. On Monday, July 19, 2020, the House of Representatives voted 336-71 to approve a
08:15package of multiple amendments to the NDAA, including Gabbard's amendment.
08:20Gabbard's addendum to the bill was a response to the Department of Defense policy
08:23banning the use of hemp products by active duty and reserve members of the military,
08:28despite hemp's legality under the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018.
08:33While on The Jimmy Dore Show in 2019, Gabbard expressed that the restrictions
08:37on hemp products was detrimental to a wide array of citizens.
08:40This is affecting our veterans and those who are locked up in our
08:43broken criminal justice system because of this prohibition."
08:47Technical procedures for delineating between marijuana use associated with the psychoactive
08:52chemical THC and the non-psychoactive CBD are still being hashed out. At present, however,
08:58all military departments will issue punitive general orders from the still-prohibited use
09:02of CBD and other products derived from hemp, according to the Department of Defense.
09:07Tulsi Gabbard expressed her advocacy for decriminalizing any and all drugs
09:11during her presidential run in 2020. In a 2019 interview with ABC News,
09:16she said that the choice to use drugs should be decriminalized,
09:19but selling drugs should remain illegal.
09:21That's the direction that we need to take, is decriminalizing
09:25an individual's choice to use whatever substances that are there."
09:30When interviewer Jon Stossel pushed Gabbard to elaborate,
09:33she maintained issuing criminal penalties against people who sell these street drugs,
09:37even if they're declared illegal, saying,
09:40"...I think there's a difference here where you have those who are profiting off of selling
09:43substances that are harmful to others as opposed to those who are making those choices on their
09:47own to do what they wish with their bodies."
09:49Though her fellow Democratic nominees like Pete Buttigieg offered their support for
09:53decriminalizing drug possession, Gabbard went a step further in proposing to make
09:57all drugs legal with regulation. She stood on board the same platform as her peers in
10:02using this legalization to wean people from prescription drugs.
10:06In her February 2019 campaign launch speech, Gabbard said that we must stand against the
10:11criminal justice system, which punishes individuals but allows corporations like
10:15Purdue Pharma to escape without criminal punishment for its role in the opiate epidemic.
10:20Tulsi Gabbard is no stranger to tangling with the establishment in Washington, D.C.
10:25Almost exactly two years after Hillary Clinton called the congresswoman a Russian plant,
10:29Senator Mitt Romney accused her of spreading pro-Russian propaganda.
10:33In March 2022, he tweeted,
10:35"...Tulsi Gabbard is parroting false Russian propaganda. Her treasonous lies may well cost
10:41lives."
10:42Romney's tweet was in response to a March interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News,
10:46in which Gabbard expressed that she was worried about supposed United States-backed biolabs in
10:50Ukraine. She followed this up with a Twitter video claiming there were more than 25 U.S.-funded
10:56biolabs in Ukraine.
10:58These pathogens know no borders. If they are inadvertently or purposely breached or
11:02compromised, they will quickly spread."
11:04While a publicly available agreement describes an arrangement between Ukraine and the U.S.
11:09to prevent the production of bioweapons, no evidence exists to support Gabbard's and
11:13Carlson's claim. This did not prevent Gabbard from clapping back. She tweeted,
11:18"...when powerful, influential people make baseless accusations of treason,
11:22they are sending a message to all Americans. If you dare to criticize the establishment's
11:26narrative, you will be smeared and discredited. If this is allowed to continue, our democracy
11:31will be no more."
11:32"...Senator Romney, please provide evidence that what I've said is not true and treasonous."
11:38In response to the natural gas pipeline leaks coming from the sabotaged Nord Stream pipeline,
11:43Tulsi Gabbard continued to lambast U.S. leaders for escalating and sustaining the war in Ukraine
11:48after the February 2022 Russian invasion. On Tucker Carlson Tonight, she accused both
11:54the U.S. and Europe for taking a passive approach, arguing that leaders from both
11:58are taking the stance that there's nothing to be done. In September 2022, Gabbard claimed,
12:04"...the United States, our leaders, and European leaders, are the ones fueling and funding this war."
12:09"...so they have a heck of a lot of leverage to be able to push for a ceasefire,
12:13negotiated outcome, and an end to this war, and to actually fight for peace."
12:17Gabbard did not hesitate to label political inaction as a purposeful continuation of the
12:21conflict. In the same interview, she elaborated that, by not actively pursuing a peaceful
12:26resolution, politicians were instead actively choosing violence and warfare.