OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former Hawaii Democrat Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who also ran for president in the 2020 Democratic primary, announced earlier this week that she was leaving the party.
During a segment on “The Five,” the panel discussed the news and what, if any, impact it will have on November’s crucial midterm elections.
Below is a transcript, via Grabien:
PERINO: “All right, let’s go to Jessica Tarlov. So, maybe not a complete surprise that she would have decided to leave, but she didn’t announce she’s becoming a Republican, but she is leaving the Democratic Party. You’re down one.”TARLOV: “Down one. We were already down that one, and probably everybody else who says they’re Democrat and are supporting her online or tuning in — I think that’s part of a show that she will have, this new like 30-minute show. Tulsi Gabbard hasn’t been a Democrat for a very long time. And it’s not because I am pissed off that she criticized the 2016 primary process and upset Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. She has been vindictive and spiteful and angry towards Democrats. She has attacked our infrastructure. She’s — I thought, certainly in the last primary, the 2020 primary, that she would have been a lot happier if Donald Trump ended up winning. She does things that are completely inexplicable. I am certainly not going to sit here and say she has any direct ties to Russia, but I don’t know how you end up in position they refer to you as ‘our girlfriend’ on Russian state TV.”
GUTFELD: “You can’t control that!”
TARLOV: “Yes, you can. You can control what you say.”
GUTFELD: “How? Go to Russia and tell them, ‘Please don’t say those things?’”
TARLOV: “No, you can do things like not go on television and say that what we’re doing here in the U.S., in terms of the free press, isn’t that different from what’s going on in Russia. They throw people, journalists, out windows in Russia. What happens here, maybe you don’t get to ask your question? She went to visit Assad in 2017 without telling the party leadership, and came back and said that the people that she met supported him. This is someone guilty of terrible war crimes. Steve Bannon liked her so much that he had to get her a Trump Tower meeting right after he won the election. Why would Steve Bannon take such a shining to Tulsi?”
GUTFELD: “So — that’s so cheap.”
TARLOV: “What?”
GUTFELD: “What you’re trying to do, first you do it with Russia, now with Bannon. What you’re saying is, if somebody else likes you, that’s on you. I can’t help it. I have some fans that can be kind of strange. That ain’t my fault.”
TARLOV: “Steve Bannon isn’t just kind of strange. If you’re a Democratic official and Steve Bannon and Donald Trump think that you’re aces and they want to meet with you and maybe consider you for being in the administration, you are doing something wrong.”
GUTFELD: “It is not Joe Biden’s fault that Joy Reid likes him, but Joy Reid is a nut case.”
TARLOV: “Are you comparing Steve Bannon and Joy Reid?”
WATTERS: “Yeah!”
GUTFELD: “I would say that I feel the same about Joy Reid that you probably feel about Bannon.”
PIRRO: “What about the 75 million Americans who don’t mind being connected to Donald Trump, who voted for him? Is there something wrong with them?”
TARLOV: “Some of them, like Steve Bannon.”
PIRRO: “Oh, cut it out. Come on, that’s not — that’s not intellectual.”
PERINO: “Let’s go back to Tulsi.”
PIRRO: “Okay, let’s get back to Tulsi.”
WATCH:
Judge Jeanine leaves lib co-host on The Five SHAKING after EPIC clap-back over Tulsi Gabbard:
"You wanna talk Turkey?!" pic.twitter.com/NiNqnR3gAd
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 12, 2022
Gabbard announced earlier this week that she was leaving the Democratic Party and slammed “warmongers” and the “elitist cabal” on her way out.
“I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are hostile to people of faith & spirituality, demonize the police & protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponize the national security state to go after political opponents, and above all, dragging us ever closer to nuclear war,” she said on Twitter while not elaborating on whether she would join another Party.
“I believe in a government that is of, by, and for the people. Unfortunately, today’s Democratic Party does not. Instead, it stands for a government of, by, and for the powerful elite,” the former representative said.
“I’m calling on my fellow common sense independent-minded Democrats to join me n leaving the Democratic Party. If you can no longer stomach the direction that so-called woke Democratic Party ideologues are taking our country, I invite you to join me,” she said.
I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are… pic.twitter.com/oAuTnxZldf
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) October 11, 2022
