Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, one of the first Democrats to jump into the 2020 race, took a page out of President Trump's notebook this weekend and trashed the media for its overtly biased and often inaccurate coverage of the candidates.
"The media has such an incredible responsibility and that's just not what we see anymore," she told her audience. "We see opinions."
"The facts and the news," meanwhile, "are lost."
Gabbard was especially on edge because her own campaign has been on the receiving end of "very intentional smear efforts." She noted that NBC has been quoting "baseless" articles, while there was one news anchor in particular who hadn't bothered to do a fact check before accusing her of being friendly with the Kremlin.
tulsi mocking george stephanopoulos is one of the greatest things you'll hear from any of the candidates pic.twitter.com/aIBxWyZ5t1
— Starrchild (@hexen220) June 9, 2019
"I did an interview with George Stephanopoulos and he says, 'well you know this article in the Daily Beast says Putin supports your campaign,'" she recalled.
"Based on what?" she asked.
The Daily Beast article in question suggested that Gabbard was close with Russia because she wants to de-escalate tensions with the country to minimize the chance for nuclear war.
In other words, Gabbard said, it was based on "nothing."
Yet, Stephanopoulos peddled the narrative that's she's a supporter of Putin.
"You said we have to end the new Cold War and you have taken a notably softer line on Vladimir Putin and Russia than some other Democrats and Republicans, want to put up a headline from the Daily Beast this week that said "Tulsi Gabbard’s campaign is being boosted by Putin apologists," Stephanopoulos noted in their recent interview on "This Week."
Gabbard has many other grievances when it comes to the media. For starters, she would probably appreciate a little more airtime.