In the first hearing by the so-called "weaponization committee" in the U.S. House, former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard was welcomed along with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
Gabbard abandoned the Democratic Party during the 2020 election, but her posture towards Russia drew a lot of concern about her by Republicans in 2017.
According to her comments, Gabbard was accused of being a tool of the Kremlin by former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and who "didn't even apologize," Gabbard lamented.
Speaking to the committee, Gabbard described a campaign event in South Carolina in 2016 when a woman approached her nearly in tears asking her to promise she wasn't working with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Gabbard said she couldn't understand why someone would believe such a thing.
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Gabbard argued in March 2022 that the United States isn't so different from Russia, saying that the U.S. government controls the media. She's also pushed Russian propaganda about the U.S. biolabs in Ukraine that were somehow making zombies.
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) tweeted her comments at the time calling it, “Actual Russian propaganda. Traitorous. Russia also said the Luger center in Georgia was making zombies. Tulsi should go to Russia,” Kinzinger said with a retweet of the video of Gabbard's comments.
While Tucker Carlson has been prominently featured on Russian state media for his anti-American sentiment around the war in Ukraine. So has Gabbard, the Intercept reported. In the video, Gabbard attacked the U.S. and NATO for what she called "provoking" Putin to invade Ukraine.
She then posted a tweet with her Fox interview saying that anything the U.S. or global community did to try and stop Putin from invading Ukraine would lead to Putin taking down the American power and communications grid and ultimately lead to a nuclear war.
Gabbard sued Clinton for her attacks, but then suddenly dropped the lawsuit saying she was suddenly too busy to pursue legal action due to COVID-19 and Donald Trump.
Those things and more might be why she's being questioned about links to Russia.
See her statement below or at this link.