Tulsi Gabbard Turns The Tables On Hillary Clinton, Uses Recent Feud As Fundraising Tool
Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton have locked horns in the wake of the most recent Democratic primary debate after Clinton accused Gabbard — with zero evidence — that she was being groomed by the Russians to run as a third-party presidential candidate.
In response to Clinton’s unfounded attack, Gabbard quickly fired back, calling Clinton the “queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long.”
As the two traded attacks, Gabbard on Saturday turned the very public feud into a much-needed fundraising opportunity while calling on Clinton to “face her directly” in the upcoming 2020 Democratic presidential primary, as reported by The Hill.
“Hillary Clinton accused Tulsi Gabbard — a combat veteran, soldier and Major in the Army National Guard — of being ‘groomed’ to be a ‘Russian asset,'” read a fundraising email sent to Gabbard’s potential supporters on Saturday.
In the email, Gabbard doubled down and challenged the failed 2016 Democratic presidential candidate to face her, presumably another call for Clinton to join the race and go head-to-head with Gabbard in a debate.
“If this a fight she wants to have, one that has implications for all of us and the future of our democracy, then I challenge her to come out from behind her proxies and powerful allies in the corporate media, and face me directly,” the email stated while asking supporters for a $25 donation.
Though Clinton recently joked about a “rematch” of the 2016 election in response to a remark made by President Donald Trump, the former secretary of state has otherwise not indicated that she has plans to jump in the already-crowded 2020 Democratic primary race.
Tulsi Gabbard is now fundraising off the Clinton attack
Email to supporters just now >> pic.twitter.com/NmEObQI2GS
— Jesse Byrnes (@jessebyrnes) October 19, 2019
Clinton claimed in a Friday podcast that the Russians have “bots” and “sites” that are already working to raise Gabbard’s popularity, accusing Gabbard of using Russian assistance in preparation of a third-party 2020 candidacy.
But Clinton’s baseless accusations were also unpopular in some sectors of the media circuit, including with CNN’s Van Jones, who claimed Clinton is playing a “very dangerous game” by using her high-powered platform to spread the accusations without proof, according to The Inquisitr. Jones went on to accuse Clinton of smearing Gabbard’s reputation with disinformation in what he described as a possible act of revenge originating from 2016 when Gabbard endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders over Clinton.
Even one of her 2020 opponents, businessman Andrew Yang, stood up for Gabbard in the wake of Clinton’s attacks in a Friday tweet, demanding that the decorated war hero be afforded more respect than what she’s currently receiving.
According to the RealClear Politics rolling average, Gabbard currently sits in 11th place with 1.2 percent support.
