Trust in US institutions dropping in part because DC establishment continues to weaponize them: Gabbard

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America losing faith in its institutions

Former Hawaii Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard joins 'Jesse Watters Primetime' to discuss the lack of trust in government from the American people.

Amid polling showing fewer than one-quarter of Americans have faith in the presidency, judiciary or Congress, former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard told Fox News part of that has to do with the feeling the Washington establishment has been "weaponizing" institutions for personal gain.

On "Jesse Watters Primetime," host Jesse Watters reported Congress had the lowest rating of all three federal branches, with 7 percent trust, while the presidency and Supreme Court hovered in the low 20s.

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Gabbard, a former Hawaii congresswoman, said the institutions of the federal government "literally exist to serve the well-being of the people," but at the moment are proving to do anything but.

"Instead, you have people in positions of power, the permanent Washington establishment, who are essentially weaponizing these institutions for their own personal or political gain," she said, pointing to allegations the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative organizations in the past, or the Justice Department targeting of ideological political opposition.

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Biden. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

"[T]hey're lying to us to protect their power. We again see this Ministry of Truth — in whatever version or name it has taken on now — seeking to censor our free speech and control what kind of information that we see and that we hear."

"It is no surprise at all that people are frustrated that these people in power; it's not that they can't deliver for the American people. It's not that Congress is incapable of doing its job. It's that they are choosing not to."

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Gabbard said many bureaucrats and officials are putting their own interests over the people they are supposed to be serving, adding there is one way out of such a situation.

"That's where our opportunity comes in to get rid of them, to fire them… to actually bring leaders into these positions who are committed, truly committed to supporting and defending the Constitution, truly committed to putting the American people and our well-being first."