On Tuesday, former Democratic presidential candidate, Tulsi Gabbard, announced in a video posted to her YouTube account that she has left the Democratic Party. In the nearly 30-minute video, she denounced the party as an “elitist cabal.”
“I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism,” Gabbard said. She did not, however, announce plans to join the Republican Party.
She went on to call on other moderate Democrats to follow in her footsteps.
“I believe in a government that is 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,” she continued. “I’m calling on my fellow common sense, independent-minded Democrats to join me in leaving the Democratic Party.”
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Gabbard’s announcement served as the first episode of the Tulsi Gabbard Show, a podcast she is now running.
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Gabbard, who gave up her House seat representing Hawaii to run for president in 2020, condemned the progressive party for being “hostile to people of faith and spirituality” while demonizing the police and protecting criminals “at the expense of law-abiding Americans.”
She then accused party leaders of weaponizing national security “to go after their political opponents, and above all, who are dragging us ever closer to nuclear war.”
Gabbard, who endorsed Joe Biden’s candidacy after dropping out of the presidential race, said she believes 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,” she said.
Gabbard also addressed other disillusioned “common-sense” Democrats — calling on them to follow her lead.
“I’m calling on my fellow common sense, independent-minded Democrats to join me in leaving the Democratic Party,” she said.
“If you can no longer stomach the direction that the so-called woke Democratic Party ideologues are taking our country, and I invite you to join me.”
“We have too many people in positions of power whose foremost responsibility is to protect our freedoms and uphold our God-given rights, and yet they are the ones who are actually trying to take these rights away from us,” Gabbard said in those remarks. “This is the biggest threat to our country. It is not coming from some foreign country — it is coming from power elites here at home and their co-conspirators in the mainstream media and the security state who are working to undermine our freedoms.”
Gabbard distanced herself from the Dems after her failed presidential bid and eventually went on to become a critic of Biden, denouncing him in May for labeling former President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement as the “most extreme political organization that’s existed.”
At the time, Gabbard accused the president of equating Trump followers with terrorists “in an attempt to intimidate them into silence.”
“So he’s essentially saying that this, ‘MAGA crowd’ are worse than terrorists. This is outrageous. And so for every American who’s watching, every American who’s seen this, no matter how you feel about the MAGA crowd, this is an authoritarian assault on our freedom,” Gabbard told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
Gabbard has also called out former President Barack Obama for “refusing” to say “Islamic extremists” are waging a war against the United States.
Known for her strong libertarian streak, Gabbard has spoken about the need to ban private prisons and emphasize rehabilitation in the criminal justice system.
