Tulsi Gabbard's out-of-nowhere doomsday video issued on Tuesday had the panel on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" scratching their heads, mirroring a GOP lawmaker who was also caught off-guard by it.
According to Donald Trump's Director of National Intelligence (DNI), the world is on the precipice of a nuclear apocalypse with Gabbard solemnly warning, "This is the reality of what's at stake, what we are facing now," she said. "Because as we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elites and war-mongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers."
On MSNBC, co-host Jonathan Lemire was asked by Mike Brzezinski, "What's the backstory here?"
"So she went to Hiroshima recently, and that's what she says is why she's posting this," he reported. "But in most ways, she's accused of parroting Russian talking points here: that it has been from the Kremlin throughout the conflict in Ukraine, that the West, that the U.S., that NATO is trying to push Russia by punishing it for invading Ukraine, therefore putting the world on the brink of an atomic conflict."
"That is what she's saying here; that that she's afraid that the elites want this war and this is a warning to the U.S. and the West to not punish Russia for not agreeing to a Ukrainian ceasefire, because if Russia is punished, they might have to lash out and we may head towards the apocalypse," he added.
The bemused Lemire then told the panel, "[Louisiana] Senator John Kennedy, a Republican, said yesterday when shown this video that he thinks that Gabbard should, quote, 'change her meds.'"
Addressing MSNBC contributor Katty Kay, he pointed out, "She's getting some pushback from Republicans, members of her own party, well, she was a Democrat, but members of the Trump –– those who are normally supportive of the Trump administration and beyond the obvious Kremlin sort of shadow here, it's just plain weird."
"Yeah, it's pretty weird and very ominous,' Kay agreed. "It went out to 3.5. million followers. I mean, I think I would add is: is this the best use of the DNI's time?"
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