Of the 2020 candidates, the one the media seem to ignore — the recurrent and favored lunch partner of tyrants, warlords and bloodyhanded strongmen — is Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI).
The outcry related to Rep. Gabbard’s gravitating to the worst among us is blamed on Russian propaganda, reputedly because Russia wishes to prevent Gabbard from leading the American people. Bountiful Russian malfeasance notwithstanding, this is going to take quite a lot of convincing.
Begin with Gabbard’s trip to Armenia in 2017. Okay, some lobbyist and Armenian-Armenian organizations got her to participate in a CODEL…essentially a Congress-sanctioned opportunity for members to learn from a foreign people or nation in five-star luxury. These can be good or bad depending on the destination of the CODEL, of course.
Taken from Congresswoman Gabbard’s own website, and bizarrely still up: “President Sargsyan, Prime Minister Karapetyan, distinguished members of the Ministry, representatives from Armenia’s National Assembly, Americans of Armenian ancestry, members of the Artsakh Parliament…to identify areas of mutual interest and cooperation to strengthen the security, economic, and cultural relationships that bind our countries…”
Her remarks notwithstanding, Armenia possesses a geopolitical reality. It is known, understood as and correctly treated by the world as a vassal nation of Russia and a close ally of Iran. Even all these years after the dissolution of the U.S.S.R., a Marxist/Soviet manner of contemplation and action is palpable…not exactly the folks congressmen want to bring home for dinner.
Rep. Gabbard peculiarly mentioned members of the “Artsakh” Parliament. In searching for it, I learned there is no parliament in a place so-called because there is no nation so-called. Not a nation on the globe recognizes it, not even Armenia. It is an Armenian occupied portion of neighboring Azerbaijan — one they have been at war over for more than a quarter century. It seems that despite international condemnation and several U.N. resolutions, Armenia won’t leave. Again, Rep. Gabbard…a dose of geopolitical reality?
Shockingly, these men of whom the congresswoman speaks so highly were literally overthrown in April 2018. A mere few months after Gabbard lauded them as the best thing since sliced bread, they were gone. Armenia, now with a new leader, Nicol Pashinyan, has turned out to be essentially another in a long line of sycophants of the Kremlin and buddy of the mullahs in Tehran.
When the truth was exposed, so were the men — as butchers, warlords, murders, thieves, and the men who kept Russia and Iran in charge of every aspect of the Armenian life, including unwaveringly keeping the people poor and silent.
The congresswoman’s diligence to tyrants neither began nor ended with Armenia’s warlords.
Her interest in holding court with tyrants began in Syria. Congresswoman Gabbard paid a visit to Bashar al-Assad against a U.S. State Department advisory. Yes, that Assad, the butcher of Syria, the one responsible for countless deaths and murders, untold numbers of tortured, multiple gassings of his own people — that Assad was Tulsi Gabbard’s lunch liaison.
When the war in Syria was at its height, operationally at full, the refugee crisis winding up to a humanitarian catastrophe and with American boots on the ground, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard took a jaunt to Syria and had tea and biscuits and plenty of face time with Bashar al-Assad. It was reputed that the poison gas-using tyrant and the member of the U.S. House of Representatives got along quite well and liked one another.
Rep. Gabbard now defends Assad regularly to American reporters. If this seems like a P.R. stunt, you may be correct and, if so, it worked really well. She is a household name and a candidate for the office of the presidency.
When candidate Gabbard resurfaces, it would seem incumbent upon the press to question her, in detail, about such odd and seemingly anti-American behavior.
Paul Miller is president and executive director of the news and public policy group Haym Salomon Center. Follow him on Twitter at @pauliespoint.