by Joel B. Pollak, Breitbart:

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is taking the fight to Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party establishment after a spat Friday in which the party’s 2016 presidential nominee claimed Gabbard was a Russian puppet.

In a video released Sunday on Twitter, Gabbard talks about the origins of her long-simmering feud with Democratic leaders, dating back to her support for the insurgent campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in 2016.

Gabbard resigned from her post within the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in protest at the way then-chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) was treating Sanders. Her concerns were later vindicated by Wikileaks, which released emails showing that party leaders had conspired to help Clinton secure the nomination, forcing Schultz to resign.

In Sunday’s video, Gabbard recalls: “People warned me in 2016 that my endorsement of Bernie Sanders would be the end of my ‘political career.’ They said, ‘Clinton will never forget,’ that ‘she and her rich and powerful friends, her allies in politics and the media, will make sure that you are destroyed.’”

Hillary & her gang of rich, powerful elite are going after me to send a msg to YOU: “Shut up, toe the line, or be destroyed.” But we, the people, will NOT be silenced. Join me in taking our Democratic Party back & leading a govt of, by & for the people! https://t.co/TOcAOPrxye pic.twitter.com/TahfE2XOek

— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) October 20, 2019

Gibbered then refers to the “countless hit pieces” against her in the mainstream media, the most recent of which was an Oct. 11 article in the New York Times painting Gabbard as a right-wing extremist. (The Times hosted the fourth primary debate just three days later, and the article — which lacked any evidence — was seen by some as an effort to marginalize Gabbard after she had attacked Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) effectively in the second debate.)

Citing her 16 years of military service in the U.S. Army National Guard, and her congressional service on national security committees, Gabbard rebukes Clinton and others for “falsely portray[ing] me as a traitor.”

Clinton claimed in a podcast hosted by former Barack Obama 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe last week that Gabbard was a “Russian asset” likely to run as a third-party candidate. She cited no evidence to back up her claim — which Gabbard promptly rejected, calling Clinton the “queen of the warmongers” and blaming her for a string of media smears.

In her video, Gabbard goes on to say that the message of the party establishment is that “if you stand up against Hillary and the party power brokers, if you stand up to the rich and powerful elite and the war machine, they will destroy you and discredit your message.”

“They will not intimidate us,” she declares. “The will not silence us.”

Read More @ Breitbart.com