Tulsi Gabbard: We need leaders who are serious about finding common sense solutions
Former Democratic U.S. representative urges Republicans and Democrats to find a path forward after the midterms, criticizes President Joe Biden's leadership and discusses reports on how search engines can influence voters on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'
At this point in time, it looks like Republicans are going to take control of the House of Representatives while Democrats will hold on to the Senate. Now, we've spent all week hearing nothing but pundits pontificating on what actually happened in this election, but if you're like me, you've had enough of that. It's time for us to talk about what happens next.
It's time for those who actually got elected to prove to the American people that they're not just politicians, that they actually are there in Washington to take action to protect the interests and freedom of the American people. Unfortunately, while in Bali today, instead of delivering a necessary message of unity to all Americans, President Biden chose to attack half the country once again, implying that the only acceptable Democratic outcome is a win for the Democratic Party.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Let me start with a few words about the recent elections held in the United States. What we saw was the strength and resilience of the American democracy and we saw it in action and the American people prove once again that democracy is who we are and there was a strong rejection of election deniers at every level from those seeking to lead our states and those seeking to serve in Congress and also those seeking to oversee the elections and there was a strong rejection of political violence and voter intimidation.
There were no candidates this cycle that were in favor of political violence or voter intimidation or destroying democracy. Joe Biden's message is the wrong approach, because here is the truth: As long as the Democratic Party and the permanent Washington elite are working hand in hand with Google and Facebook, and as long as Google is allowed to continue to use its monopoly power to skew public opinion in a certain direction, literally manipulating the information that we as voters are allowed to see, then there is no democracy.
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U.S. President Joe Biden speaks before signing the agreement for Finland and Sweden to be included in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the East Room of the White House on August 9, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
A recent study by researchers at North Carolina State University found that Google's email service, Gmail, "retained the majority of left-wing candidate emails" while sending "the majority of right-wing candidate emails to the spam folder." Additionally, Google has greatly reduced the visibility of various conservative websites in its search results. Breitbart, for example, found that Google has changed its algorithm so that search traffic to Breitbart declined by more than 60%. As you can see, these kinds of changes can have a major impact on voting. A peer reviewed 2015 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that big search engines like Google can influence the voting preferences of undecided voters by 20% or more.
We've been hearing a lot of politicians scream and shout about how committed they are to defending our democracy. Stop posturing. Stop fear mongering. Do something about it. That's what we need right now, leaders who are actually serious about working on behalf of their constituents and the American people and finding common sense solutions to the many challenges that we face. The reality is the margins of this election across the board are razor thin no matter how things shake out in the next few days with these election results that have not yet been announced, Republicans and Democrats will have to find a way to work together if there's any hope of getting anything done.
Unfortunately, what we're already seeing is both sides hardening their position. We, the American people, cannot afford for Congress to be paralyzed by partisan gridlock for the next two years. There's too much to be done. Every person in Congress should see themselves as an independent who is not beholden to any political party, but beholden only to their constituents, the American people, ready and willing to work with their colleagues. It won't be easy, I know. It's going to require leadership, courage, respect and humility.
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When I was a Democrat in Congress and I introduced legislation I always sought out and was able to find Republicans and Democrats who were willing to work together on actually solving problems. It's hard, but it can be done. It must be done. I'm not advocating bipartisanship just for the sake of bipartisanship. It's really about coming together as Americans to work for the best interests of the people that they serve, us, their constituents.
There are many challenges that we're facing. Here are a few ways where Congress should make a start and first and foremost, we must secure our borders. We have to use the power of the purse to close the border and make it crystal clear that if you've come into this country illegally through Biden's open door, you've got to go back to wherever you came from. If you want to come back into our country, you've got to follow our laws and just a few weeks ago, I was in McAllen, Texas, southernmost border, the busiest spot of the southern border for illegal crossings, where Congresswoman Maya Flores and her husband, a Customs and Border Patrol agent, we walked around and they showed me one of the spots where there's this huge gap in the border wall. Later, as we were driving out, we saw piles and piles of building materials that were purchased for the wall stacked on the side of the road, unused, things that we already paid for.
I asked, why aren't they being used? Well, the Biden administration won't allow continued construction of the wall, but they also won't allow the governor of Texas to use those materials again that we already bought to secure their own border. Unfortunately, what's happening in McAllen is occurring all along the southern border. Fox's Bill Melugin reported this weekend from Normandie, Texas, as well as Eagle Pass.
BILL MELUGIN: In Normandy, Texas, early Wednesday morning, a massive group of migrants crosses illegally into this tiny town on the outskirts of Eagle Pass. Hundreds of them escorted by the Texas National Guard and Border Patrol in a single file line, stretching almost as far as the eye can see. The migrants are predominantly from countries that Title 42, a policy that allows authorities to expel migrants on the basis of public health, is rarely enforced on, meaning they won't be expelled to Mexico. At the same time, another group of 400 crossed illegally into Eagle Pass, most of them single adult men.
Over the weekend, the White House forced the resignation of the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Chris Magnus, but let's be honest here, what this really was. It was an effort to shift blame away from those in power who are the ones responsible for over 2 million people illegally entering our country through the southern border: the president, the vice president and Secretary Mayorkas.
We can't let them get away with this. So, the question is: is the Biden administration really going to actually change its policy and make it clear to people around the world that anyone who comes into this country illegally is going to be sent immediately back to where they came from? Honestly, I don't have much faith that this is going to happen because if it were, they would have already done it.
There is nothing more important in this country than protecting our God given rights enshrined in the Constitution. These very freedoms and civil liberties, however, are under attack. They have been for quite some time.
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Immigration is at the top of the ticket this November as a record number of illegal immigrants continue to cross the border. (John Moore/Getty Images)
This new Congress coming in must take this promise that they make when they take their oath of office seriously to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and actually work together to protect our civil liberties and end the gross overreach of government. Get rid of provisions like those in the Patriot Act that allow for secret FISA courts, that allow for warrantless wiretapping of Americans, allow for a no-fly list that has no due process, the use of the Espionage Act to go after political dissidents and more.
They need to exercise their oversight authority to stop this administration's efforts to undermine our freedom of speech and silencing political opponents by politicizing agencies like the Department of Justice and FBI to go after them and by getting Big Tech and social media to censor voices that they don't want to hear. A recent lawsuit by the states of Missouri and Louisiana have uncovered troubling evidence that this censorship is occurring. Twitter even scheduled a meeting to debrief top White House officials on "vaccine misinformation." Twitter then censored that "misinformation," some of which later turned out to be true.
In a particularly egregious case, officials at the White House and Pfizer urged Twitter to ban journalist Alex Berenson because he pointed out accurately and correctly that COVID vaccines don't stop transmission of the virus. Berenson's lawsuit unearthed internal communications at Twitter. Talking it at an April 2021 meeting at the White House, one Twitter employee writing that the White House "really wanted to know about Alex Berenson." Another Twitter employee wrote "White House COVID adviser Andy Slavitt suggested they had seen data that had showed (Berenson) was the epicenter of disinfo that radiated outwards to the persuadable public."
Now within months, Twitter banned Alex Berenson. Facebook, meanwhile, took down a parody account of Tony Fauci after the White House complained. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security's domestic terror unit is targeting parents who are protesting at Board of Education meetings because they're concerned about their kids’ education. They dragged nonviolent, pro-life activists from their homes in front of their kids.
AGENT: If you’re not going to let me in…
PAUL VAUGHN’S WIFE: I want to know why you were banging on my door with a gun. You’re not going to tell me anything? Can I have your name? You’re not going to give me your name? You’re not going to give me any information?
PAUL VAUGHN ON "TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT" ON OCTOBER 10th: When my kids go out to the car to go to school and the FBI pulls up armed, running to the door and one of them goes to the kids and holds the kids with a long gun inside of my driveway and does not let them go into the house. That is absolutely, as my wife said in the video, unacceptable.
Now, instead of curbing these abuses of power, Congress has enabled them in order to prevent further abuse of power, Congress needs to use the power of the purse and immediately halt the IRS funding of 87,000 new IRS agents that will be harassing everyday Americans and the IRS has a troubling history of targeting groups and individuals based on their politics. You probably remember IRS director Lois Lerner specifically targeted conservatives. Congress did nothing to hold her accountable and they must take action now before it's too late, because the IRS is now already one of the most heavily armed law enforcement agencies in the country.
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UNDERCOVER AGENT: In addition to being accountants, we’re also law enforcement officers which is very interesting because a lot of the special agents who work for the IRS don’t come from a law enforcement background. We get to do things like all the other law enforcement officers do. Things happen. We have to be ready to respond, so we have to be ready.
IRS SPECIAL AGENT: We teach our agents to fire a firearm, to be able to shoot. We teach them self-defense tactics and methods of defending themselves and protecting others as well. So they go through that entire process so not only can they analyze records, but they have that law enforcement component.
IRS SPECIAL AGENT: We do carry weapons. We carry handcuffs
Why in the world do IRS agents need to carry weapons and handcuffs? Most of their work concerns civil matters, not apprehending violent criminals. Now, last but not least, it's important that we remember that foreign policy is domestic policy. We have politicians from both political parties who are the permanent Washington elite and who must be held accountable for what they're doing with our taxpayer dollars and how they're undermining our national security as they push us closer and closer to the brink of nuclear catastrophe.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks with President Biden on Thursday, Aug. 25. (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy )
They need to stop giving a blank check to Ukraine and demand accountability for the tens of billions of dollars that they've sent so far because the blank check, it's not just for Ukraine. It's for the military industrial complex who's made trillions of dollars off of our wars in Afghanistan and in the Middle East. Now, the Biden administration, they want to hire 87,000 new IRS agents to go over every receipt and every deductible of American taxpayers with a fine-tooth comb, squeezing every penny that they can.
The Ukrainian government and their corrupt bureaucrats and oligarchs and the defense contractors who are profiting from all these weapons – the Biden administration requires no receipts at all. Why is this? It's because they know that most of this money, our taxpayer dollars, is going to corrupt bureaucrats. They know this.
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Their actions expose who they really care about. It's not us. While they're shipping troops and taxpayer dollars overseas, and they're continuing to do so, this administration and Congress are failing to take care of our veterans and service members. As we speak here, we have soldiers who are forced to rely on food stamps to feed their families, soldiers who are living in uninhabitable conditions and those who are not getting the care that they need for service-related injuries, illnesses and diseases.
If the new Congress takes action on all of these areas, if they solve the border crisis, close the border, if they curb Department of Justice abuse of power, if they shut down this new IRS funding for hiring agents and protect civil liberties and this unconditional, endless funding of the war in Ukraine and protect and take care of our troops and veterans here at home, they will have accomplished meaningful results for the American people. That's the right approach, regardless of which party controls Congress.
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