(The Hill) — Former Hawaii congresswoman and 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday said she’s leaving the Democratic Party because it is “under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers who are driven by cowardly wokeness.”
Gabbard, who served as a Democrat in the House from 2013 to the end of 2020, said in a video statement that her now former party is “stoking anti-white racism,” undermining constitutional freedoms and is “hostile to people of faith and spirituality.”
Democrats “demonize the police but protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans,” she said. “And above all, [Democrats] are dragging us ever closer to nuclear war. I believe in a government that’s of the people, by the people and for the people. Unfortunately, today’s Democratic party does not.
“Instead, it stands for a government that is of, by and for the powerful elite. I am calling on my fellow, common-sense, independent-minded Democrats to join me in leaving the Democratic party,” she added. “If you can no longer stomach the direction that the so-called woke Democratic party ideologues are taking our country, then I invite you to join me.”
Gabbard, who ran an unsuccessful White House campaign in the 2020 Democratic Primary, has repeatedly criticized her former party, including President Biden for escalating tensions with Moscow.
Over the weekend she slammed the Biden administration for not caring “about the American people.”
“Permanent Washington loots us to serve the interests of the arms-manufacturing global oligarchy while we struggle to pay for gas/food/rent and our soldiers go on food stamps,” the former congresswoman tweeted.
In February, Gabbard appeared at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC), the largest organizing conservative conference in the world.
It’s unclear where she’ll go next, as Gabbard has long been on the fringe of American politics and has been criticized for her closeness with Russia.
She was criticized by members of the Republican party, including Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) and Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah), earlier this year for spreading Russian misinformation about U.S. biolabs in Ukraine.