Tulsi Gabbard: White nationalists and Russian propaganda machine throw support behind 2020 candidate

The Hawaii Democrat is facing a growing pool of controversies surrounding her 2020 presidential candidacy

Tulsi Gabbard has only just launched her 2020 presidential campaign, and yet she’s already attracting support from some of the most controversial entities in American politics.

Take, for example, the Russian propaganda machine that sought to sow division in the United States and influence the nation’s 2016 election.

An NBC News analysis shows sites linked to Russian influence operations “celebrated Gabbard’s announcement” when she said on CNN she was expecting to launch a formal bid in the coming weeks and “defended her positions on Russia and her 2017 meeting with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, and attacked those who have suggested she is a pawn for Moscow”.

The analysis looked at a slate of major English-language news sites Russia used in its efforts to impact the previous election and undermine Hillary Clinton’s candidacy against Donald Trump, with several experts who track the Kremlin’s digital operations noting they have seen “what they believe may be the first stirrings of an upcoming Russian campaign of support for Gabbard”.

The Hawaii lawmaker has also received a full-throated from David Duke, a leading white nationalist and former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Mr Duke posted a photo to his Twitter banner of Ms Gabbard with a statement reading “Tulsi Gabbard for President. Finally a candidate who will actually put America First rather than Israel First”.

None of this is to say Ms Gabbard has sought endorsements from white nationalists or foreign adversaries; rather, she’s denounced Russian influence operations meddling in US elections and has disavowed white supremacy and the likes of Mr Duke.

“I have strongly denounced David Duke’s hateful views and his so-called ‘support’ multiple times in the past, and reject his support,” the Democrat said in a recent statement to media outlets.

A spokesperson for Ms Gabbard, Erika Tsuji, also said in a statement to NBC News it was “ridiculous” to suggest Russia supported her presidential bid.

Still, both developments have only added to a growing pool of controversies surrounding Ms Gabbard’s candidacy shortly after she kicked off her campaign with an anti-war speech at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki.

Shortly after teasing her White House bid, Ms Gabbard was forced to apologise once again for her past work for an anti-LGBTQ organisation her father had spearheaded in Hawaii.

The Democrat, who has admit to previously holding traditional views in opposition to marriage equality, said in a cellphone video uploaded to YouTube: “In my past, I said and believed things that were wrong, and worse, they were very hurtful to the people in the LGBTQ community and to their loved ones.”

“I know that LGBTQ people still struggle. They’re still facing discrimination, still facing abuse and still fear that hard-won rights are going to be taken away by people who hold views like I used to,“ Ms Gabbard continued, adding she “formed her own opinions” on the issue over the years.

“That cannot happen,” she added.

Ms Gabbard has also repeatedly defended an unannounced trip she took to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2017.