President Donald Trump went to bat for 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) on Saturday. During his speech at Turning Point USA's Student Action Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump brought up previous comments made about Gabbard, including Jill Stein's conspiracy theory that Gabbard is somehow connected to Russia.
"I don't know Jill Stein. I'm sure she's a fine woman, but I know she's not a Russian agent. Then she said Tulsi Gabbard is a 'weapon of Russia.' And they lost all credibility because we know Tulsi Gabbard – and I give her respect – she didn't vote the other day. I give her a lot of respect because she knew it was wrong. She took a pass. But I don't know. I do know one thing: she's not an agent of Russia."
Trump reminded the crowd that Democrats continually said, for more than two years, that he colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. After spending $50 million, issuing 2,800 subpoenas, interviewing 500 witnesses and executing 500 search warrants, Special Counsel Robert Mueller found that the Trump campaign did not collude with Vladimir Putin. And yet we still hear this bogus talking point continually being perpetuated by the left.
Gabbard decided to vote "present" on the House's articles of impeachment against President Trump because she did not agree with the Democrats' partisan witch hunt. In her eyes, Trump "did something wrong" but she believed impeachment should be a bipartisan agreement, not a one-sided push.
“I am standing in the center and have decided to vote Present,” Gabbard said following the vote. “I could not in good conscience vote against impeachment because I believe President Trump is guilty of wrongdoing.”
The Congresswoman also punched at Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for making up the rules of impeachment as the Democrats go along.
“I was surprised to hear that. You can’t kind of just shift and change and make up the rules as you go along. If you’re going to pursue this process, you’ve got to let it play out the whole way through," Gabbard explained.
It is becoming more and more clear that Gabbard is a threat to the Democrats' progressive push. She does not fall rank and file and vote along party lines. And, in a lot of ways, she speaks for the majority of the country who feel like they are caught in the middle. "Normal Democrats" – the average folks across America – may not like President Trump but they realize the impeachment process has been a sham partisan push and the president has not received a fair shake.
If they did not feel so threatened by her then people like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Jill Stein would not continually try to say she is connected with Putin. It is like they seem to think that if they take her down that suddenly all of their problems will be fixed, that Americans will suddenly "see the light of day" and wake up to all of this "wrong doing" they say Trump committed (yet they continually fail to prove).
Even if you do not agree with Gabbard's politics, you have to give her credit for being one of the "lone men" out there to say the Democrats are wrong.
President @realDonaldTrump on Tulsi Gabbard voting present on Impeachment:
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) December 21, 2019
"I give her respect. She didn't vote the other day. I give her a lot of respect. She knew it was wrong."#SAS2019 pic.twitter.com/Mlthu4IlIa