Tulsi Gabbard Votes to Proceed with Partisan Impeachment Framework

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 29: Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) spe
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Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), who is running for the Democrat 2020 presidential nomination, cast a yes vote in favor of the impeachment resolution against President Donald Trump the House passed on Thursday.

The resolution passed on a 232–196 vote — a tally of those opposed to the resolution included two Democrats and every Republican member.

Speculation about the long-shot candidate’s future plans has bordered on conspiracy theory mostly on the left after Gabbard’s recent announcement that she would not seek re-election to her House seat.

And whether it is Gabbard being a favorite of the Russians or the Republicans, the rumors keep swirling about her despite her leftist credentials.

New York Magazine claims Hillary Clinton’s remarks about Gabbard being groomed for a new role referred to the GOP, not Moscow: 

What is very clear, however, is that Gabbard is now working hand in hand with the Republican party. This is apparent in her pattern of working closely with Republican-controlled media, like “Hill TV” — John Solomon’s propaganda outlet — and Sean Hannity. Gabbard used both forums to promote Republican talking points discrediting the impeachment process — i.e., “Most people reading through that transcript are not going to find that extremely compelling cause to throw out a president that won an election in 2016” — before eventually reversing course.

The libertarian Reason magazine joked about the Russians invading New Hampshire, where Gabbard’s campaign is picking up steam:

A new CNN poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire and released this week shows Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D–Hawaii) with 5 percent support from likely voters in the state, which is scheduled to hold the nation’s first Democratic primary on February 11. That level of support is good enough to put Gabbard in fifth place, trailing only Sen. Bernie Sanders (21 percent) of Vermont, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (18 percent) of Massachusetts, former vice president Joe Biden (15 percent) and Pete Buttigieg (10 percent), the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Tied with Gabbard at 5 percent are Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

The CNN poll is perhaps the best signal yet that Gabbard—whom Hillary Clinton nonsensically smeared as a “Russian asset” two weeks ago—is experiencing a bit of a polling bounce, especially in New Hampshire. She’s risen by 4 percentage points since the same pollsters’ July survey while Biden has fallen by 6 points and Sen. Kamala Harris of California has fallen by 9 points. Nationally, Gabbard has experienced a small but noticeable bump in her poll numbers in recent weeks too, though she continues to sit in the third tier of Democratic hopefuls.

But the most interesting thing about the new CNN poll in New Hampshire is not so much the level of Gabbard’s support, but rather who is supporting her. No, it’s not the Russians—it’s actually mostly Republicans. When you dig into the crosstabs of the poll, it shows that 59 percent of New Hampshire Republicans have a favorable view of Gabbard, while only 23 percent of the state’s Democrats do. 

Reason also reported that the CNN poll moves Gabbard closer to qualifying for the November 20 Democrat debate.

Follow Penny Starr on Twitter.

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