Ex-Democrat, reported contender for Trump running mate, sued Clinton for Russia remark but dropped case

Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman, has repeated a discredited claim about Hillary Clinton that previously saw Gabbard lodge then drop a $50m defamation suit in a new book published as she seeks to be named Donald Trump’s running mate for US president.

Accusing Democrats of making up “a conspiracy theory that [Trump] was ‘colluding’ with the Russians to win the election” in 2016, Gabbard claims: “Hillary Clinton used a similar tactic against me when I ran for president in 2020, accusing me of being ‘groomed by the Russians’.”

Gabbard ran for the Democratic nomination. Clinton did not accuse her of being “groomed by the Russians”.

  • gastationsushi@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    These “why I left the left” grifters, if their prominences don’t lead reasonable people to believe how society engineered to stear us conservative. Then recall James Comey a couple weeks before the 2016 election. Which candidate’s investigation did he tell the world about, which did he stay mum on? Which investigation was BS, which one showed strong links to foreign agents?

    • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      What happened to her. In 2015 she was a Bernie Sanders supporter and was a big help in 2016. By 2020 she was a toxic piece of shit.

      • athairmor@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Russian influence.

        Putin hates Clinton. Gabbard was useful as a “progressive” to try to weaken Hilary. Once Hilary was out of the picture, she became more useful as a general “there’s something wrong with the Democrats” Democrat. Now, she’s just whatever shit she can stir to weaken the left of American politics. “Enlightened centrist”, Democrat critic, Trump sycophant—whatever.

        Maybe Clinton didn’t say it but I will, she’s been groomed by the Russians.

  • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Why is she drawing attention to her Russian involvement? I don’t think this is gonna work the way they think. And btw Clinton isn’t running, so why are they even bothering to go after her?

    • kescusay@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      For several reasons:

      • Few people get the MAGA morons fired up and angry like Clinton.
      • They’re desperate to re-litigate the 2016 election, the last time Trump won anything.
      • All the attacks on Biden have comically failed, so they’d rather run against Clinton.
  • Binthinkin@kbin.social
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    8 months ago

    These women don’t make Hillary look worse that’s for sure. I mean Tulsi and Marjorie and Boebert. What a trifecta of trash.

  • DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    “Hillary Clinton used a similar tactic against me when I ran for president in 2020, accusing me of being ‘groomed by the Russians’.”

    I guess no need to be groomed by Russians when you’ve already been groomed by fanatical Christian Extremists so your values basically align with the current Russian regime’s:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Gabbard:

    Opposition to LGBT rightsedit

    Gabbard became an anti-homosexual activist before the same-sex marriage debate took hold in Hawaii.[3] Between 1991 and 1996, Gabbard founded the organizations Stop Promoting Homosexuality Hawaii (renamed Stop Promoting Homosexuality International), Stop Promoting Homosexuality America, and the Alliance for Traditional Marriage and Values.[10] Gabbard became well-known for his advocacy for Hawaii Constitutional Amendment 2 (1998). This amendment, approved by voters 69.2%–28.6%,[11] gave the state legislature “the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples” under the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), signed by Bill Clinton in 1996.[12][3][13]

      • DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Of course he was, he’s a skirt chasing country boy from Arkansas, however, he was at least compassionate enough to open some of those doors for our LGBTQ allies, DOMA was shitty legislation but after it’s passing many other steps were made to help these folks.

        I’m not sure how old you were in '96, but I was a Jr in Highschool at the time, most people still used “fag” and “homo” to joke around about stuff still. We only had two completely out gay dudes in my highschool, I was cool with both of them and knew them through some girls that we all were mutual friends with. At one point some of the more "white trash/racist kids that I’d already had a problem with started harassing these gay dudes pretty constantly and pretty aggressively and the girls we were mutual friends with got my friends and I to handle the situation for them, we out numbered the homophobes by quite a bit and they chose not to fight at that time.

        Now mind you, this is on Long Island, just a short train ride to NYC, the Village, and Stonewall, and Pride parades happened each year at this point, so while there were only two out gay dudes in my school most likely many of us had a LGBTQ person we knew back then that was out. Now imagine how this situation would have gone down back in '96, in Arkansas, I can tell you exactly how it would go down based on my experiences living in Florida during the early 90’s as well, but also by how it would go down even now in Arkansas.

        So sure saying Clinton was as homophobic as the rest in 1996 is pretty much saying that water is wet, most people were ignorant, and even worse many of us still believed the HIV based homophobic conspiracy theories, because AIDS was a huge problem at the time.

        • anticolonialist@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          In '96 I had already been out for 11 years. Clinton wasn’t compassionate, he used my community as props for his election, like Obama did for his reelection

          • DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Meanwhile the Right loves to call Michelle a man, but both sides are the same amirite? I’m just saying both Clinton and Obama are absolutely more accepting of homosexuality than their right wing counterparts, whatever bias you may feel towards them, that should be clear, because the other side wouldn’t want to use you, hell most of them just want to end you, so maybe keep that in mind for some perspective.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    The cons constantly jerk off over the idea of an actual shooting civil war and the worst of them will cackle with glee about the prospect of shoving normal Americans onto trains.

    What country(ies) will benefit the most if that were to happen here?

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    8 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    She penned an op ed in the Wall Street Journal under a headline, I Can Defeat Trump and the Clinton Doctrine, that might now prove an awkward fit with her political ambitions.

    Later, after dropping out of the Democratic primary and endorsing Joe Biden, who she said had “a good heart” and would “help heal” a badly divided country, Gabbard sued Clinton for $50m over the “Russian asset” comment, rather than the remark about “grooming”.

    Four years on, Gabbard has completed a remarkable journey across the political aisle, from being seen as a rising Democratic star in the US House to hosting on Fox News and speaking at events including CPAC, a hard-right annual conference.

    On the page, Gabbard presents a mix of memoir – from growing up in Hawaii to service in Iraq, from entering Congress to her failed presidential run – and pro-Trump screed.

    She also accuses Democrats of planting evidence and stories with a compliant press, aided by a “deep state” consisting of “active and retired officials from within the justice department and other national security agencies”.

    The deep state conspiracy theory, which holds that a permanent government of operatives and bureaucrats exists to thwart populist leaders, is popular with Trump and followers notably including Liz Truss, a former UK prime minister.


    The original article contains 998 words, the summary contains 215 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • Reddfugee42@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    She sat down and thought about all the things she was actually doing, and couldn’t remember if anyone had actually accused her of them yet. Better to head them off at the pass!