Dear CCI Friends,
Tulsi Gabbard has just announced to the world the most powerful message imaginable regarding Ukraine, Russia and the United States … what must happen to avoid further damage and WWIII.
Please read Tulsi’s most profound interview ever. Apparently she has no fear in telling the truth.
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
An Interview With Tulsi Gabbard
On war, Mitt Romney, accusations of treason, the intel community, and Ukraine
March 22, 2022
By Ben Domenech
A little over a week ago, Utah Senator Mitt Romney called former Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard “treasonous” over her comments on the war in Ukraine. Considering how the debate over American involvement in Ukraine has in such a short period of time shifted many of our assumptions about foreign policy, NATO, and the Russia-China alliance — including from former President Trump, sounding an increasingly hawkish tone — and led to increasingly heated language in describing opponents of more American involvement, it seemed like a good time to talk with the former member of Congress, who sparks such controversy with regularity and now seems far more popular on the American right than on the left. The interview below has been lightly edited.
Ben Domenech: So I want to start out with this: When you were growing up, what was your perspective on war?
Tulsi Gabbard: I can’t say it was something I thought much about, to be honest. Growing up here in Hawaii it was kind of easy to be removed from it. It was really 9/11 that was a major wake up call, just for me personally, as it was with a lot of folks who probably weren’t focused on foreign policy or the issues of war and peace before that.
Ben: How old were you and where were you when 9/11 happened?
Tulsi: I was 20. I was here in Hawaii and remember waking up and turning on the news and seeing the footage of the towers falling, over and over. Because of the time difference, it had already happened in the middle of the night for us.
Ben: Were you already in the military at the time? Were you in college?
Tulsi: Neither. I had left community college and was preparing to run for State House in Hawaii.