In May 2022, I was texting with the organizers of a debate slated to happen later that summer in New York. The panel so far consisted of me and right-wing commentators Tim Pool and James O’Keefe. I’d been repeatedly reassured that a “second leftist” would be added to the panel. (I’d pushed for Majority Report host Sam Seder, who’d already agreed to do it, but the organizers passed on him, saying they didn’t have time to prepare his contract.) Finally, they told me that the “second leftist” would be . . . former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.
At the debate, she largely stayed out of the argument I was having with Pool and O’Keefe, which centered around labor unions. When she did speak, she spouted bland platitudes — certainly no help to me as I attempted to represent the left-wing perspective. Two and a half years later, Donald Trump has now tapped Gabbard to be his coming administration’s director of national intelligence (DNI). Gabbard accepted the nomination gladly, finally putting to rest any remaining rumors of allegiance to the Left.
On the surface, this was the end of a long and strange journey for Gabbard, who’d left a position at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to endorse Bernie Sanders in 2016. She’s drifted from support for an insurgent social democratic candidate eight years ago to being appointed to the cabinet of a right-wing authoritarian demagogue. The more closely we look at her record, though, the less it looks like she’s ever really stood for much of anything.
Gabbard was elected to…
Auteur: Ben Burgis
