On Wednesday, Hawaii congresswoman and declared 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) doubled down on her longstanding moral confusion with respect to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Assad has overseen the slaughter of roughly half a million people since the commencement of the bloody civil war that has been tearing apart his country for the better part of a decade.
Appearing on MSNBC this morning, Gabbard emphasized that she does not necessarily view Assad as an enemy of the United States.
Politico reported on the exchange:
Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesday declined to identify Syrian President Bashar Assad as an adversary of the U.S., doubling down on a 2017 meeting she had with the strongman whose military is engaged in a civil war with U.S.-backed rebels.
Questioned about her stance on Assad by NBC News’ Kasie Hunt, Gabbard, one of Hawaii’s two House members, said Assad is not an enemy of the U.S. because, she said, he does not pose an immediate threat to the country. Pressed repeatedly, Gabbard declined to say whether Assad is a U.S. adversary, telling Hunt that “you can describe it however you want to describe it.”
She also said her meeting with Assad, which drew criticism in light of the Syrian leader’s record of human rights violations, was important in “the pursuit of peace.”
In 2017, Gabbard appeared to go on a rogue trip to meet Assad in Syria. According to The Guardian, Gabbard’s trip to meet with the murderous tyrant made her the first sitting U.S. lawmaker to meet with Assad since the commencement of the bloody internecine conflict. Last month, shortly after confirming her 2020 presidential declaration, Gabbard defended the 2017 trip in an exchange with CNN host Jake Tapper:
Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard on Sunday stood by her decision to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2017, saying that American leaders must meet with foreign leaders “if we are serious about the pursuit of peace and securing our country.”
Gabbard, who announced earlier this month that she was running for president in 2020, discussed the controversial meeting with Assad during a trip to Syria in January 2017 with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” Sunday. The Syrian leader is believed to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians.
“Looking back on that meeting, do you have any regrets?” Tapper asked.
“No, I think that it is, it continues to be very important for any leader in this country to be willing to meet with others, whether they be friends or adversaries or potential adversaries if we are serious about the pursuit of peace and securing our country,” Gabbard, who represents Hawaii, replied.
Yesterday, only one day before her latest morally ignorant flirtation with the Damascus butcher, Gabbard received a perhaps unwelcome presidential endorsement: that of former Ku Klux Klan leader and notorious Jew-hater David Duke. The infamous white supremacist suggested on Twitter that Gabbard would be the candidate to put American interests ahead of Israeli interests. Gabbard has since denounced Duke and rejected his endorsement.