President Trump defended Rep. Tulsi Gabbard against allegations that she is working for Moscow to influence the U.S. presidential election.
Last week, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 71, said Gabbard is a “Russian asset” being “groomed” by the Kremlin for a third-party presidential run that could effectively hand the 2020 election to Trump.
The president vouched for the Hawaii Democrat in a cabinet meeting on Monday and said Clinton is “sick” for making the claim.
“She’s not a Russian agent,” he said of Gabbard.
“She’s accusing everyone of being a Russian agent,” Trump continued, referring to Clinton. “These people are sick. There’s something wrong with them.”
Gabbard, 38, responded on Friday to Clinton’s charge, calling the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee the “queen of warmongers.”
“From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a concerted campaign to destroy my reputation,” Gabbard tweeted. “We wondered who was behind it and why. Now we know — it was always you, through your proxies and powerful allies in the corporate media and war machine, afraid of the threat I pose. It’s now clear that this primary is between you and me. Don’t cowardly hide behind your proxies. Join the race directly.”
Gabbard served in a field medical unit in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 and was deployed to Kuwait from 2008 to 2009. She is still a major in the Hawaii Army National Guard. The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate took a break from the campaign trail over the summer to spend two weeks in Indonesia on a military training exercise.
Gabbard joined Congress in 2013 and sits on two House committees — the Financial Services Committee and the Armed Services Committee.
