Tulsi Gabbard Calls on Democrats To Condemn ‘New McCarthyism’

March 2, 2020 (EIRNS)—On Feb. 27, Democratic presidential precandidate Tulsi Gabbard issued a call to all Democratic presidential candidates to join her in condemning what amounts to “election meddling” by the nation’s surveillance state in the 2020 election, calling it a “new McCarthyism.” Appearing as an op-ed in the widely-read Washington, D.C.-based daily, The Hill, Gabbard’s call has been shared over 15,000 times.

“Reckless claims by anonymous intelligence officials that Russia is ‘helping’ Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) are deeply irresponsible,” Gabbard states, specifically calling out Sir Michael Bloomberg for his “calculated decision” to repeat this “unsubstantiated accusation” in the South Carolina debate. “Enough is enough. I am calling on all presidential candidates to stop playing these dangerous political games and immediately condemn any interference in our elections by out-of-control intelligence agencies.”

After directly calling for these state actors to “immediately stop smearing presidential candidates with innuendo and vague, evidence-free assertions,” Gabbard then turns to her fellow Democratic contenders:

“This new McCarthyism must be renounced by every presidential candidate, otherwise we must conclude they lack the foresight and integrity required to lead our country. If candidates are too afraid to stand up against those who would suppress the voices of the American people with McCarthyist smears, they are not real leaders.”

Pointing out that the surveillance state’s “laughably obvious ploy to stifle legitimate criticism” first appeared in the Washington Post, Gabbard further casts out so-called “journalists” as well as her fellow candidates for repeating these unsubstantiated charges. Gabbard challenges the state actors to come clean, saying that the public has a right to know. “Otherwise, all it is doing is fomenting a sense of powerlessness and paranoia in the voting public,” something which they, themselves, say actually benefits “the Russians.”

She includes a defense of President Donald Trump, observing that the attack on Sanders is the same McCarthyist strategy as that behind Russiagate, which has forced Trump to continually “prove that he is not Putin’s puppet,” thus bringing the country “closer to nuclear war