Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Dodges Debates

[sheshe2]

Repost. I first posted this in GD by mistake.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, the congresswoman who resigned from a top Democratic Party post after protesting a lack of debates between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, is now refusing to debate her own Democratic opponent.

Arguing for more debates between Sanders and Hillary last October, Gabbard told MSNBC, “We’ve gotta have more opportunities for people to present their vision for our country, their plans, and to be held accountable for the positions that they’re taking.” After months of dissent over the Democratic debate schedule, Gabbard stepped down from her position as a Democratic National Committee vice chairwoman to endorse Sanders.

But now that Gabbard is being challenged by progressive activist Shay Chan Hodges, she is refusing to even respond to a request for debates.

snip

“I agree with Rep. Gabbard that conducting debates during a primary is critically important… That is why I urge Rep. Gabbard to remember the arguments she made for additional debates on Fox News and other media outlets and apply them to her own election.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/06/28/tulsi-gabbard-dodges-debate

..........................

Strange. She stepped down from her position at the DNC after protesting the lack of debates between BS and HRC.

Funny. She refused debates with her Democratic challengers and wants debates now that she is running for President. She is in fact attacking the DNC on FAUX SNOOZE with none other than TUCKER CARLSON for debate rules she signed on for. I apologize to her supporters, however this makes her a hypocrite.

I will debate only when I want to debate. Alrighty then. Do as I say not as I do.

[RockRaven]

1. Would a serious/non-troll non-useful-idiot/non-foreign-asset behave thusly in toto?

Inquiring minds want to know. I want to know.

[MasonDreams]

3. Minds are like parachutes they only function when open.

I am not informed enough to refute your allegations with certainty. My security clearance lapsed after I left the US Army. I can say that unquestionably, Tulsi we would be in a stockade (Army jail) if she were a foreign asset or useful idiot.
Tulsi Gabbard is a comissioned officer (Major) in the Army Reserve. She's on the foreign relations and the armed services committees in the House. If the FBI, CIA, or CID (Army Intelligence) don't think she's defending the Constitution, she would be gone in a NY minute.

Take a look at what the UN has to say about the gas attacks. Should we fight Assad who is also fighting ISIS? I don't know. I think we should help the Kurds fight the Iranians and ISIS, but not if they're going after the Turks. Again, I don't know. Who is Al nusra? Al Qaeda is now ISIS and DASH right? Do the all the Saudi factions and the Isrealis fight the threats to the USA? Do you know who is a threat to US national security? And who is the enemy of my enemy? I don't know for sure. Does Venezuela pose a threat? Nicaragua? Cuba? Refugees who just walked thru Mexico in the heat of August?
Well, I think it's pretty safe to assume we shouldn't attack a US Army officer sitting on the foreign relations committee in the House of Representatives.

I also think Hawaii will get enough info to make a good decision. D.C. to Honolulu and back is time and jet lag. And she is running for President too.

[Celerity]

5. it is a 3 year old plus article that keeps getting reposted

The 2016 primary did not go well for Shay Chan Hodges

http://files.hawaii.gov/elections/files/results/2016/primary/histatewide.pdf



then the general election results

http://files.hawaii.gov/elections/files/results/2016/general/histatewide.pdf





2018 also did not end well for Gabbard's next Democratic challenger, Sherry Alu Campagna

http://files.hawaii.gov/elections/files/results/2018/primary/histatewide.pdf



the 2018 general

https://elections.hawaii.gov/wp-content/results/histatewide.pdf




2020 will be more of the same, probably

[Dopers_Greed]

2. Maybe bc she knows that her campaign is being propped up by Russian bots

[TomCADem]

16. IS TULSI GABBARD THE JILL STEIN OF 2020?

I think Tulsi main goal is to serve a Trojan Horse for Bernie Sanders by which Bernie's supporters can attack other Democratic candidates as ostensible Gabbard supporters.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/01/tulsi-gabbard-2020-presidential-run

The ill will toward Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who announced Friday that she is running for president, goes a long way toward explaining the political psychosis that has gripped the Democratic Party since Russia intervened in 2016 to elect Donald Trump. In another timeline, Gabbard might be an ideal 2020 candidate: Samoan-American, Hindu, female, an Iraq War veteran, and environmentalist who broke with the D.N.C. to support Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the primary. But Democratic attitudes have changed since Trump took office. Liberals who once encouraged diverse primaries are now deeply suspicious of alleged spoilers like 2016 Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who has faced questions about her ties to Russia; a party that has traditionally prided itself on skepticism toward military adventurism has since embraced a more muscular, anti-Russia foreign policy. All of which makes Gabbard the odd woman out in a soon-to-be crowded field.

Perhaps the biggest red flag for the Russia-gate crowd is Gabbard’s perplexing coziness with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, with whom she met in 2017. Gabbard reportedly did not notify her Democratic peers before flying to Syria on the trip. Afterward, Gabbard said she was “skeptical” that Assad had used chemical weapons against his own people, calling the accusations just another round of “pointing fingers.” Critics have accused her of being an “Assad shill” and therefore also a “Putin puppet”—or, as Russian state television network RT put it, “daring to seek firsthand accounts rather than blindly trusting the MSM narrative.”

Gabbard’s foreign-policy heterodoxy might be surmountable if not for a multitude of other original sins. In late 2016, amid rumors that she was being considered for a Trump administration position, Gabbard took a Trump Tower meeting brokered by Steve Bannon, who praised the Democrat for embracing the term “radical Islamic terrorism.” Outside of U.S. politics, Gabbard has offered vociferous support for India’s staunchly nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi, who, as chief minister of Gujarat, was accused of complicity in a 2002 religious riot against Muslims that killed more than 1,000 people.

Fears that Gabbard might play the Jill Stein–esque spoiler, then, are likely overblown—if only because Gabbard’s presidential aspirations are probably dead on arrival. Over the weekend, the photogenic 37-year-old congresswoman was forced to apologize for working for her father’s anti-gay organization in the early 2000s, which, per CNN, actively opposed same-sex marriage in Hawaii and supported conversion therapy. (As a state representative, Gabbard was not quiet about her beliefs, testifying on a committee in 2004 against “homosexual extremists” pushing for civil unions.) For today’s Democratic Party, no love of surfing, millennial élan, or fondness for leis will be enough to overcome past homophobia or a Trumpian foreign policy. As R.N.C. spokesman Michael Ahrens told Axios: “Liberals think she’s too conservative, conservatives think she’s too liberal, and just about everyone thinks her coziness with Bashar al-Assad is disturbing.” That doesn’t leave many constituents in Gabbard’s corner—except, perhaps, RT.

[hlthe2b]

4. Count me unsurprised. She prefers to go on Tucker Carlson to deride the Democratic Party and

depends on those organized, questionable, and often foreign supporters to get her across the finish line? Well, it isn't enough for her Presidential campaign and IMO ought not to be sufficient for her primary challenge in Hawaii.

She can be well-spoken and seemingly intelligent and as a veteran, would appear to have a lot going for her. But, damn if she doesn't project a sense of "puppet-strings" that should disturb most. Who and what agenda does she serve?

[thesquanderer]

6. Politics is politics. Heavily favored incumbents don't like to do primary debates.

Here in New York, incumbent governor Andrew Cuomo refused to debate primary challenger Zephyr Teachout in 2014.

And I don't think you'll see Trump debating William Weld, either.

[crazytown]

7. Tulsi is headed for Fox

to take up the 'Dennis Kucinich Chair' for bashing Democrats from the Left. Like Dennis, we will see how many here will continue to defend her as a 'Loyal Democrat' after she settles in at Ruperts digs.

[Celerity]

8. she is 38, why would she retire from the House?

[crazytown]

11. She's not putting money into her re-election account

Tulsi Gabbard Raised Negative $20 for Her House Campaign
https://www.thedailybeast.com/tulsi-gabbard-raised-negative-dollar20-for-her-house-campaign

[Celerity]

12. she will transfer money over and she can fund-raise like crazy, she has a national footprint

she will easily be reelected

just like she has been

[crazytown]

13. Che Sera Sera

[Celerity]

14. indeed, I have far greater worries than what happens in HI-2, which is a lead-pipe Dem lock seat

My main concern is the Senate and of course, the POTUS

cheers

[brooklynite]

9. In all fairness...

To debate a House candidate NOW would raise questions about her commitment to running for the Presidency. I assume she'll be happy to once her Presidential campaign crashes and burns.

[Celerity]

10. to debate the one in the OP, she would need a time machine, the article is from 3 years ago nt

[HeartlandProgressive]

15. lol it is from 3 years ago

[Blue_true]

19. She won't be able to dodge debating the primary opponents that she has now.

It is just a matter of time before she has to crater. If she does not debate him, he likely crushes her on voting day.

[Tarheel_Dem]

17. Gawd, I hope we've seen & heard the last of her.

[Blue_true]

18. She will not be able to dodge debating the congressional primary

opponent that she has this time around. He, like she, comes from a well known family in their state, he also is active military reserves and is a sitting State Senator.

[sheshe2]

20. Great news.

It would also look bad if she did after saying that her voice should be heard at the Presidential debates.

[Blue_true]

21. Excellent point SheShe, she would look like a fool.

Maybe she is spending time on Fox because she sees the writing on the wall and wants to land a job there as the token democrat who backstabs democrats with regularity.

[sheshe2]

22. Ha!

Excellent point, Blue!