MS NOW's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski expressed shock over a new report exposing the decades-long influence of Tulsi Gabbard's religious mentor over her political career.
Gabbard recently stepped down as President Donald Trump's director of national intelligence after serving as a Democratic congresswoman, but the Washington Post reported over the weekend that that she has been guided every step of the way by eccentric religious leader Chris Butler, head of a Hare Krishna breakaway group called the Science of Identity Foundation.
"Some people call it a cult," Scarborough said.
A former member of the group provided Post reporter Jonathan Swaine with thousands of emails and documents that revealed Butler's advisory role to Gabbard, who had been asked about her relationship with the guru during her confirmation hearings.
"Dozens of attached memosappeared to document directivesand advice for Gabbard from hertime in Congress," Swaine reported. "Somecontained instructions on whatlegislation she should propose,which policies she shouldembrace, and how she shouldconduct herself on television. They had an air of authority."
The reporter compared Gabbard's remarks in 32 television interviews between 2014 and 2016 and found she used language that was nearly verbatim to Butler's talking points memos, and Scarborough was stunned.
"It is aHare Krishna-styled group thatmany people have compared to acult," he said. "People don't suggestthat being in a Hare Krishnagroup is the same as being in acult, but in this case, whenyou have something that may bea spinoff of that and a cult-like leader advising members of Congress how to speak, how to,how to put forward legislation,how how to style their hair.There's a problem here."
Swaine spent a year digging into the documents and reporting on their significance, and "Morning Joe" co-host Jonathan Lemire said the findings raised important questions.
"The endgame of these instructions notquite clear, but Tulsi Gabbardhas always been sort of amysterious figure," Lemire said. "Her politicshave sort of been – she's been ashapeshifter. She ran forpresident as a Democrat notthat long ago, and now, ofcourse, she serves, you know,up until Friday, in the Trumpadministration, and certainlyshe had fallen out of favorwith Trump and, you know, wecertainly wish her and herfamily well. Her husband isbattling cancer, it's a prettydevastating diagnosis."
"But wealso know from reporting thatthe Trump administration waslooking to move on from hersoon anyway," Lemire added, "and why readingthis here, and especially withyou mentioned, Mika, read thepiece about the her words beingalmost verbatim from theseinstructions that the thisleader Butler often spoke toher really tough language,sometimes like very demeaningsort of rhetoric to her, amember of Congress. Yeah, itraises all sorts of questions as to her background and towhat actually was the goal here, you know, in this relationship."
"Yeah," Brzezinski agreed, "very concerning."