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On Wednesday, Democratic presidential candidate Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) filed a $50 million defamation suit against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, alleging that the 2016 Democratic nominee lied about her and “did so publicly, unambiguously, and with obvious malicious intent.” Gabbard filed the suit in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.
The suit is based upon remarks that Clinton made in October of last year while on a podcast with Democrat political strategist David Plouffe. While not mentioning Gabbard by name, former first lady Clinton was clearly referring to Gabbard when she said the following: “[The Russians are] also going to do third-party. I’m not making any predictions, but I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who’s currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be a third-party candidate.”
Clinton went on: “She’s the favorite of the Russians, they have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far, and that’s assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not, because she’s also a Russian asset. Yeah, she’s a Russian asset, I mean totally. They know they can’t win without a third-party candidate.”
The day after the podcast, a Clinton spokesperson, Nick Merrill, seemed to confirm that Hillary was talking directly about Gabbard. When asked by CNN whether Clinton’s comments were about Gabbard, Merrill replied, “If the nesting doll fits.” The “nesting doll” comment was an obvious reference to Russian nesting dolls (Matryoshka dolls).
Stein, the 2016 Green Party candidate, who was also slandered by Clinton, has called the charge “an unhinged conspiracy theory.”
But Gabbard has taken it to the next level, seeking financial redress for Clinton’s reckless comments.
The suit claims that Clinton was bitter over the fact that Gabbard — who was the vice-chair of the DNC in 2016 — endorsed Bernie Sanders over her and that Clinton sought revenge for that by smearing Gabbard in her race for the presidency: “Clinton — a cutthroat politician by any account — has never forgotten this perceived slight. And in October 2019, she sought retribution by lying, publicly and loudly, about Tulsi Gabbard. Specifically, in widely disseminated national comments, Clinton falsely stated that Tulsi — an Army National Guard officer and United States Congresswoman who has spent her entire adult life serving this country — is a “Russian asset.”
With the Iowa caucuses now less than two weeks away, the lawsuit could reasonably be seen as a “Hail Mary” attempt for Gabbard to gain some attention in a race that’s seen her drop even further out of contention than she already was.
Seen as an “outsider” Democrat, Gabbard has consistently challenged the notion of “regime-change wars” and has even gone so far as to meet with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in 2017. She has clashed with Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), saying she was “deeply concerned” over Harris’ prosecutorial record as the California Attorney General in a July debate. Gabbard also accused Harris and Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) of religious bigotry in January of 2019 over their questioning of a judicial nominee.
Gabbard also defied Democrat leadership by voting “present” on the Articles of Impeachment for Donald Trump in December.
Maybe Gabbard’s worst transgression as far as Democrats are concerned is that she is a frequent guest on various Fox News shows.
While Gabbard’s lawsuit is likely just a last-ditch attention-getting ploy for a desperate presidential campaign, it is good to see Hillary Clinton challenged on some of her blatant falsehoods and conspiracy theories. Since she lost the presidency, she has travelled far and wide, blaming everyone but herself for that loss. Now Clinton has 50 million reasons to look inward and realize that she’s not a victim, but a con-artist who victimizes others.
Photo: AP Images
James Murphy is a freelance journalist who writes on a variety of subjects with a primary focus on the ongoing anthropogenic climate-change hoax ancultural issues. He can be reached at [email protected].
