UPDATED: Following former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s scathing announcement she was quitting the Democratic Party—complete with a solid, and to some surprising defense of the Second Amendment—and the launch of her new podcast, reaction from the firearms community is mixed, with some saying “Bravo” and others taking a “wait-and-see” approach.
Many gun owners recall her positions, and votes, on important gun control measures and they are skeptical the 41-year-old Gabbard has suddenly become a staunch pro-2A advocate. Skeptics are weighing in at Ammoland, for example.
But nobody can argue her departure from the Democrats was anything but dramatic, especially when it came to her condemnation of party icons who display a “hatred of the Second Amendment.”
“Today’s Democratic party does not believe in our constitutionally-protected right to bear arms,” Gabbard said at 15 minutes into her premier podcast episode of “The Tulsi Gabbard Show. “Our founders passed the second amendment out of a recognition that every one of us as Americans has a right to defend ourselves and our loved ones and to serve as a check on a tyrannical government seeking to take away our God-given freedoms.”
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
A moment later, Gabbard adds, “Protecting our freedom to defend ourselves and those we love and protecting our rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution against a tyrannical power is exactly why we must insure that our right to bear arms shall not be infringed.”
Gabbard served in Congress from 2013 to 2021. She ran for the presidency in 2020 but the campaign never really caught fire and was interrupted when she was called to duty as a U.S. Army Reserve officer. Since leaving Congress, she has frequently been interviewed by Fox News.
Her “good-bye” message to Democrats drew some snide reactions from the far left, and this near the midterm elections, many are wondering what impact her observations “from the inside” may have on those elections.
“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,” Gabbard said in a Twitter message, “who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, that are enshrined in our constitution, who are hostile to people of faith, and spirituality, who demonize the police and protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, who believe in open borders, who weaponize the national security state to go after their opponents, and above all, who are dragging us ever closer to nuclear war.
“Now, I believe in a government that is of the people,” she continued, “by the people and for the people. Unfortunately, today’s Democratic party does not. Instead, it stands for a government that is of, by and for the powerful elite.
“I’m calling on my fellow common sense independent minded Democrats to join me in leaving the Democratic party,” Gabbard said. “If you can no longer stomach the direction that the so-called woke Democratic party ideologues are taking our country, then I invite you to join me.”
She reportedly received only one message from a Democrat.
However, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) had this to say, according to Fox News, “I think Tulsi is somebody who has always spoken her own mind. She’s always been sort of an independent maverick. And I think when she ran for president, she realized how really isolated she was from the great majority of the Democratic Party, which is now, frankly, a pretty weird party. We saw the same thing happen in a slightly different way in Philadelphia last week, where the former deputy mayor, a Democrat, endorsed Dr. Oz for the U.S. Senate and said that John Fetterman is just so crazy on crime and so pro-criminal, he couldn’t be for him. So I think you’re seeing this drift, and we’ve certainly seen among Latinos a huge drift towards the Republican Party as they’re driven away by the weirder policies of the Democratic Party.”
Over at Ammoland, comments from readers are mixed. One reader commented, “I 100% agree, but at least she made a statement on a public forum that outs the democrat leadership for what it is. That, I admire her for. I’m just not willing to let the fox into the henhouse, not for many years, and not without an outstanding track record moving forward.”
Another remarked, “I don’t trust her one bit. She has been anti-2A for a long time, and vocal about it.”
A third stated, “While this is interesting, I’d like to hear about what, when and why she says she changed her mind. Haven’t checked out the podcast, it’s not *that* interesting unless she spells it out.
