Tulsi Gabbard (D) lämnar partiet: ”Elitistisk kabal”

Tulsi Gabbard (; born April 12, 1981) is an American politician, United States Army Reserve officer and political commentator who served as the U.S. representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021. Gabbard was the first Hindu member of Congress and also the first Samoan-American voting member of Congress. She was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 United States presidential election, before subsequently leaving the party and becoming an independent in October 2022.In 2002, Gabbard was elected to the Hawaii House of Representatives at the age of 21. Gabbard served in a field medical unit of the Hawaii Army National Guard while deployed to Iraq from 2004 to 2005 and was stationed in Kuwait from 2008 to 2009 as an Army Military Police platoon leader. While a member of Congress, she served as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2013 to 2016, and resigned to endorse Bernie Sanders' campaign for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. During her time in Congress, she frequently appeared on Fox News to criticize the Barack Obama administration for "refusing" to say that the "real enemy" of the United States is "radical Islam" or "Islamic extremism". During her presidential campaign, she highlighted an opposition to military interventionism, although she has called herself a "hawk" on terrorism. Her decision to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and her skepticism of claims that he had used chemical weapons gave rise to public disagreement from establishment Democrats.In March 2020, Gabbard ended her presidential candidacy to endorse Joe Biden, and was succeeded by Kai Kahele in the House of Representatives on January 3, 2021. Since ending her presidential campaign, Gabbard has taken conservative positions on issues such as abortion and transgender rights. Gabbard endorsed Florida's Parental Rights in Education Act that received public disagreement from teacher unions, and in 2022 was a featured speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).