While the establishment continues to presume Hillary Clinton will receive the 2016 democratic nomination, if not the presidency, more and more people are stepping up to support Bernie Sanders. The latest bombshell to voice feeling the Bern is U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, out of Hawaii, who dropped her vice-chair position at the Democratic National Committee, Sunday, to endorse Sanders.
Gabbard told MSNBC’s “Meet the Press”:
“I think it’s most important for us, as we look at our choices as to who our next commander in chief will be, to recognize the necessity to have a commander in chief who has foresight, who exercises good judgment.”
BREAKING on #MTP: @TulsiGabbard just announced her resignation as DNC Vice Chair and endorsement of @BernieSanders #Decision2016
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) February 28, 2016
Hawaii US Rep @TulsiGabbard says she backs @BernieSanders because she respects his approach to foreign policy and avoiding unnecessary wars.
— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) February 28, 2016
Politico reports Gabbard informed her DNC peers via email that “after much thought and consideration, I’ve decided I cannot remain neutral and sit on the sidelines any longer.”
Gabbard states in the email:
“There is a clear contrast between our two candidates with regard to my strong belief that we must end the interventionist, regime change policies that have cost us so much. This is not just another ‘issue.’ This is THE issue, and it’s deeply personal to me. This is why I’ve decided to resign as Vice Chair of the DNC so that I can support Bernie Sanders in his efforts to earn the Democratic nomination in the 2016 presidential race.”
Most interesting is the common knowledge that Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz has been accused several times of bias on behalf of the pro-establishment candidate Hillary Clinton, whose 2008 campaign Schultz served on as a national co-chair. Perhaps Gabbard will soon offer up her own insights into the allegations of bias. Allegations of bias from a DNC insider could send a rumble through the 2016 election as the primaries rage on neck and neck.
Check out Gabbard talking about her decision in a video, below:
I resigned from the DNC & endorsed @BernieSanders to be our next President and Commander-in-Chief. Here's why: https://t.co/qinG2yCUow
— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) February 28, 2016
Supporting Gabbard’s claims leading to her decision, The New York Times released a piece the same day as Gabbard’s announcement in which it reports Clinton, “whose Senate vote for the Iraq war may have doomed her first presidential campaign nonetheless doubled down and pushed for military action in another Muslim country.” That country was Libya, and everyone knows how that’s turned out. The Times referred to Libya’s current condition as “a failed state and terrorist haven.”
The Times further reports:
“As she once again seeks the White House, campaigning in part on her experience as the nation’s chief diplomat, an examination of the intervention she championed shows her at what was arguably her moment of greatest influence as secretary of state. It is a working portrait rich with evidence of what kind of president she might be, and especially of her expansive approach to the signal foreign-policy conundrum of today: whether, when and how the United States should wield its military power in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East.”
At her “moment of greatest influence,” in her “working portrait rich with evidence of what kind of president she might be,” Clinton helped usher in the “failed state and terrorist haven” that is now Libya. This is just one reason why much of the country, including Tulsi Gabbard, is feeling the Bern. This is why people are marching in 45 cities around the nation in support of Bernie Sanders. Not one other candidate in the 2016 presidential race sees that kind of grassroots, bottom-up support, regardless of party. There is too much at stake.
Featured image by Tulsi Gabbard video via Twitter screen capture.