Jonathan Chait writes:

“Hillary Clinton emerged recently to claim, with no basis in fact, that I am being ‘groomed’ by the Russian government to undermine America,” claims Tulsi Gabbard in a Wall Street Journal op-ed today. In fact, as even the conservative Washington Examiner acknowledges, Clinton did not say that. She said Republicans were grooming Gabbard. And far from refuting that charge, everything about Gabbard’s op-ed confirms Clinton was probably right.

It is in Gabbard’s interest to conflate the charge that she is working on behalf of the Republicans with the charge that she’s working on behalf of the Russians. The former is apparent, while the latter is impossible to prove. Gabbard has taken some strident foreign-policy stances that follow no apparent American dovish objective, and do line up with Russian goals. While Gabbard presents herself as a noninterventionist, she bizarrely attacked the Obama administration for failing to bomb Al Qaeda in Syria, while crediting Russia for allegedly doing so:

Bad enough US has not been bombing al-Qaeda/al-Nusra in Syria. But it’s mind-boggling that we protest Russia’s bombing of these terrorists.

— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) October 1, 2015

When reporters found that Russia was in fact using Al Qaeda as a pretext to attack non-Al Qaeda rebels opposed to the Assad regime, Gabbard dismissed those reports as lies:

Mainstream media promoting false narrative: Russia bombing American-backed rebel forces. Russia bombing al-Qaeda/al-Nusra not US allies.

— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) October 1, 2015

She later met with Assad, has continued to take positions that line up with the interests of Syria (and its patron, Russia) and has won the support of Russia’s propaganda apparatus. Again, none of this proves anything untoward. Some people have weird beliefs. It is possible for an American to honestly arrive at positions that happen to line up with Russia’s, and in such an instance it would be natural for Russia and its allies to reward that confluence of interest with meetings and friendly propaganda messages.

What is very clear, however, is that Gabbard is now working hand in hand with the Republican party. This is apparent in her pattern of working closely with Republican-controlled media, like “Hill TV” — John Solomon’s propaganda outlet — and Sean Hannity. [Continue reading…]