'If They Can Falsely Portray Me As A Traitor, Then They Can Do It To Anyone'
"People warned me in 2016 that my endorsement of Bernie Sanders would be the end of my 'political career.' They said, 'Clinton will never forget, that she and her rich and powerful friends, her allies in politics and in the media, will make sure that you are destroyed,'" Gabbard stated in a campaign advertisement.
"Well, there have been countless hit pieces full of smears against me from day one of this campaign. They've tried to destroy my reputation, and my lifetime of service because I stood up to them."
"If they can falsely portray me as a traitor, then they can do it to anyone," Gabbard proclaimed. "And, in fact, that's exactly the message that they want to get across to you, that if you stand up against Hillary and party power brokers, if you stand up to the rich and powerful elite and war machine, they will destroy you and discredit your message."
Tina Nguyen of Vanity Fair wrote an article that was headlined, "Is Tulsi Gabbard the Jill Stein of 2020?"
On February 2, NBC News ran a dubious analysis that asserted "Russia's propaganda machine" discovered Gabbard. She was confronted over this during her appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" days later.
Questions from the panel included:
"Vladimir Putin, is he an adversary of the United States of America?"
"Do you agree with the intel chiefs' assessment that Vladimir Putin and Russia interfered with democracy in 2016 and are going to try to do it again in 2020?"
"Just to confirm, you agree with the intel chiefs that Russia is trying to actively interfere in American democracy?"
"There have been reports that Russian apparatus that interfered in 2016 is potentially trying to help your campaign. Why do you think that is?"
Glenn Greenwald pointed out the named sources in the NBC News report were Renee DiResta, director of research at New Knowledge, and Josh Russell, a researcher and "troll hunter." New Knowledge was caught by the New York Times fabricating Russian troll accounts on behalf of the Democratic Party in an Alabama Senate race. They manufactured "false accusations that the Kremlin was interfering in that election." This resulted in Facebook shutting down the CEO of New Knowledge's account.
Russell is "someone CNN last year touted as an 'Indiana dad' and 'amateur troll hunter' with a full-time job unrelated to Russia (he works as a programmer at a college) and whose 'hobby' is tracing online Russian accounts."
On "Morning Joe," Gabbard reacted, "It's actually very dangerous for articles like that and outlets like NBC to put out this information that seeks to bully people into saying you can't come out and take the positions that I've taken, of calling for an end to the [new] cold war, calling for an end to the nuclear crisis that we're facing. Otherwise, you're going to be smeared as someone who is a subject of Russian propaganda."
Buzzfeed ran an article on February 12, "Who Is Tulsi Gabbard? She Doesn't Like What You've Probably Heard."
Host Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late Senator John McCain, grilled Gabbard during her appearance on ABC's "The View" and demanded she "clarify" that Assad is an "enemy of the United States." She was only badgered with this question because of the rumors out there that she somehow is serving the agenda of a foreign power.
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