Malcolm Nance says Tulsi's NOT a Russian "asset"

[StarfishSaver]

He suggests she's a "useful idiot" with room for advancement.

Link to tweet

[handmade34]

1. good assessment n/t

[Mr.Bill]

2. Note to cable news:

STOP COVERING TULSI GABBARD SO MUCH. Or didn't you learn your lesson in 2016?

[LovingA2andMI]

4. THIS...

Here!

[Mr.Bill]

7. She's a 1% and they are covering her like she's

in the top three. (and frankly, so are we) This is all looking too familiar. She's 1%. Keep her there.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

6. Had Clinton not said anything, I'm sure they wouldn't be.

[Mr.Bill]

8. Good point

but it doesn't mean they are required to.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

9. This is true.

The 24-hour news cycle has definite drawbacks.

[StarfishSaver]

13. Actually, the press wasn't saying much about it until Tulsi went ballistic

Tulsi made it a big story. She probably thought it would work to her benefit, but will soon realize that not only did she out herself, she put everyone on notice that Hillary was onto something and pretty much scuttled any chance she had of running as a third-party candidate (and yes, I know she said she has no plans to run as a third party candidate, but I don't trust her any further than I can throw her, so such a "promise" doesn't impress me).

[Cuthbert Allgood]

28. So when Clinton speaks, people should just take it?

Tulsi absolutely had the right to defend herself.

[chillfactor]

29. i would believe HILLARY before tulsi

tulsi is the incarnation of EVIL.....if you can't see that I fear for your soul..

[PAMod]

31. Secretary Clinton did not mention Cong. Gabbard by name.

So Cong. Gabbard also had the right to stay quiet and not draw attention to herself.

But she didn't do that. I wonder why...

[Cuthbert Allgood]

38. So maybe she was talking about Warren?

If that's the defense we are going to for Clinton making this comment, that's pretty weak sauce.

[StarfishSaver]

48. If there's oy one person who fits the description, that's on that person, not Hillary or anyone else

There's a reason everyone - including Gabbard herself, thought she was talking about Gabbard.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

50. Nobody didn't know who she was talking about.

Did you think it was Warren? Harris? Klobuchar? And the "if you don't have anything to hide" thing is kind of tired.

[StarfishSaver]

51. That should tell you something, then, shouldn't it?

There must be something about Tulsi that's not like the others.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

53. Well, if the Clintons say they aren't running a sex ring in the basement of a pizza joint

then there must be something to it.

I'm not a fan of Tulsi, but that logic you are using is frightening.

[StarfishSaver]

54. Tulsi still hasn't denied anything Hillary said

Her entire "defense" was an unhinged rant about Hillary Clinton being a warmongering personification of the rot permeating the Democratic Party. But she has yet to deny that the Russians are supporting her in hopes that she runs as a third party candidate, which was not a criticism of Tulsi - unless she refuses to disavow or accept such support, which we are still waiting for her to do.

One would think that, if Tulsi didn't want the support a hostile government clearly is trying to give her, she'd unleash some of that wrath she's flinging at Hillary for mentioning the support on the people who are providing it.

One would also think the people trying to defend her would also evidence a similarly appropriate degree of upset about what the Russians are doing in plain sight, rather than direct all their fire at Hillary Clinton for, once again, calling out the Russians' dirty work.

That is IF they believe Russian interference in our elections is actually a bad thing.

[betsuni]

32. What?

Hillary didn't mention Tulsi's name.

[StarfishSaver]

34. And when Tulsi actually defends herself, we can discuss what she said

But nothing in her Trump-inspired tweet screed could even be charitably be characterized as self-defense.

[mcar]

40. A. Defend herself against what?

B. She launched a lie-filled attack on HRC. That's not defending herself. That's attacking one of our senior stateswomen.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

41. Saying she is working with the Russians?

Have you not been paying attention?

[PAMod]

42. Except she didn't say that, did she?

She said that Russian interests were working on behalf of her candidacy, which is true.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

43. She said she was an asset.

That word has meanings in the spy world.

[LanternWaste]

47. It also has meanings in the luggage world.

And the gaming world.

And the football world.

And the IT world.





Again, little more than simply irrelevancy made to move the fastest goalposts in the world...

[Cuthbert Allgood]

49. She was talking about espionage.

Nice try, though.

[mcar]

44. Who said Tulsi is working with Russians?

Yes, I've been paying attention. Have you?

[Cuthbert Allgood]

45. Who was she talking about then?

Your choices are: Gabbard, Warren, Harris, or Klobuchar.

Do tell.

[LanternWaste]

46. Thankfully, no one at all (other than yourself) is implying she cannot defend herself.

So... your little t-shirt/bumper-sticker statement seems, at best, wholly irrelevant.

[Quixote1818]

10. For the love of God, YES!

[ritapria]

11. Yes . I'm sick of hearing about Gabbard

Let her return to a well- deserved obscurity

[StarfishSaver]

17. Hillary made that much more likely to happen

She destroyed her usefulnesss to the Russians.

[Act_of_Reparation]

33. Sure.

We were in real imminent danger of Tulsi fucking Gabbard hijacking the election until Hillary Clinton came along and saved the day. Whew. Crisis averted.

[Cha]

37. Yes! Thank You, Hillary!

[sheshe2]

3. Love Nance.

"Useful Idiot"

[calimary]

15. Sounds about right to me.

[Pachamama]

25. Love Nance too....so glad he clarified what Tulsi Gabbard really is...

[mopinko]

5. exactly.

[W_HAMILTON]

12. But that just means...

...that she just randomly happened upon all these pro-Russia stances on her own free will, which is likewise pretty inexplicable. I don't know what the answer is.

[Marcuse]

22. Just like trump and Moscow Mitch. Coincidence?

[superpatriotman]

14. Nance 2020!

I could get behind him.

[OAITW r.2.0]

16. Tulsi is a lame duck loser. Fact is she will be out of her pay grade.

I wish she'd run as a Republican.

[jimlup]

18. So why are we frolicing in this? I mean really are we this fucking susceptible to russian bots?

[OregonBlue]

19. She makes me so uncomfortable. There is something "off" about her.

[luvtheGWN]

20. Hillary has been correct about several things.

She warned us about the "vast rightwing conspiracy". Check. She warned us that Trump was Putin's puppet. Check. She's warned us about Gabbard -- and there appears to be plenty of evidence to back up that warning.

Listen to Hillary; she knows.

[Cetacea]

24. Yes. Your post should be an OP.

Thanks for the reminder, too.

[chillfactor]

30. AMEN! n/t

[Pachamama]

26. Probably has to do with being raised by a cult....has a tendency to do something to people....

[mountain grammy]

21. I think he's right.

[Scurrilous]

23. ...

[Ford_Prefect]

27. They will have a variety of plans running...Its what they do.

As they did in the last run-up they will disrupt at any and all opportunities. Confusion to the enemy is their method.

[Vogon_Glory]

35. Useful Idiots May Not Be Assets, BUT

being one is still a disqualifier in my book.

—

To slightly change the subject, useful idiots can be found in other contexts. After Reagan’s crowd locked down control of the National Republican Party, I realized that trying to be a moderate Republican in a GOP in the iron grip of hard-right ideologues was playing the role of a useful idiot. That’s why I became a Democrat,

[SKKY]

36. Malcom Nance is a useful idiot. And those of us who were stationed with this...

...clown and know him understand he is about 1% of what he claims to be. "An old spy", or someone who "...led SPECOPS operations in the middle east." Yea, right Malcom. An arabic linguist often leads SEaL operations.

[StarfishSaver]

39. Interesting

But that "useful idiot" has been right about pretty much everything and called out the Russian interference long before anyone else did, so I'll go with his assessment.

[Mike Nelson]

52. So, the whole thing would have been avoided...

... if only Hillary has said "useful idiot" instead of "asset"? Lol... love Nance, but the news-readers would have had a worse reaction!

[robbedvoter]

55. Hillary didn't call her that either. Just Jill Stein/

Media misrepresented her words - as they always do. Transcript of what she said
https://hoax-alert.leadstories.com/3471005-fake-news-hillary-clinton-did-not-claim-russians%20-grooming%E2%80%99-tulsi-gabbard-as-3rd-party-candidate.html.

[StarfishSaver]

56. True

And she never criticized Tulsi. She talked about what RUSSIA is trying to do.

But Tulsi's reaction showed everyone full well exactly why Russia thinks she's a good investment.

[Hortensis]

57. Gabbard HAD to know our intelligence services had found

Russia was promoting her, and she had to know why.

Nance may well be correct that she's not an active asset. These words have meanings. (Note that Hillary did not say she was -- it was Gabbard herself who angrily used the word, claiming the NYT suggested she was an asset.)

Agents are willingly working for Russia as...agents. Like Tatyana Romanova and Rosa Kleb in From Russia with Love.

Assets include those people who are pressured into cooperating through being compromised and range from very high-level to minor, but also willing types. For instance, wingnuts who are too arrogant and deluded to realize and admit to themselves that they're being manipulated into actively assisting Russia. People who sell information, give it away for other reasons, or are just prone to blabbing.

And then you have the useful idiots. Those who spread RT propaganda here and elsewhere, honestly believing it's truth from some honorable LW voice, fall in the useful idiot group.

Where would accepting Russia's assistance, presumably unrequested, but knowing it was intended as foreign aggression, part of an occult war, against the U.S.?

For Nance to believe Gabbard was a useful idiot, wouldn't that mean she was too stupid and deluded to understand that Russia was using her and what for? Even if she only learned it was happening the way we did -- from our intelligence agencies, and not from her own campaign's monitoring of social media and perhaps other ways? Anyone who's seen her on the debate stage knows she's very intelligent, and she used to be an officer in the military and must have been given formal training in security issues.