Tulsi Gabbard Is Pushing Debunked Russian Propaganda to Help Trump

If you thought Tulsi Gabbard’s claims that Hillary Clinton was taking a “daily regimen of heavy tranquilizers” while she was secretary of state sounded a little dubious, you’d be right.

The national intelligence director parroted the conclusions of Russian spies at a White House press briefing Wednesday, saying that Moscow had seen evidence of Clinton’s “psycho-emotional problems, uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression, and cheerfulness.”

But what Gabbard didn’t seem to remember was that these same documents were reviewed and debunked by the FBI years ago, as pointed out Thursday by independent journalist Marcy Wheeler.

In 2018, the Department of Justice released the results of an FBI investigation into Clinton’s leaked emails and other related Russian intelligence reports that they had obtained. Parts of that report had remained classified until this month.

The FBI analysis finds that much of the Russian intelligence the bureau looked at was “objectively false,” and they never found the stolen documents on which the Russians’ conclusions were based. The 2018 report even says that it’s not clear “if such communications in fact existed.”

In Wednesday’s press conference, Gabbard quoted a different report from 2020—one conducted by the Republican-led House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that analyzed, in part, the DOJ’s 2018 report to assess the “manufactured Russia hoax.”

The House committee report plucked details from the Russian intelligence without acknowledging the context that the DOJ had already discovered: that what the Russian spies had written was just not true.

Alongside conspiracy theories about Clinton’s temperament and reliance on tranquilizers, Gabbard also said the report’s findings provided proof that former President Barack Obama had attempted a “coup” by alleging Russian interference in the 2016 election—interference that’s been verified by multiple other investigations, including one by then-Senator and fellow MAGA Republican Marco Rubio in 2020.

Obama’s office called the allegations “bizarre.”

Whether Gabbard’s uncritical repetition of Russian intelligence is a continuation of her sympathetic attitude toward Russia that members of her own party have described as “traitorous,” or just an attempt to distract from the Epstein chaos, we may never know. But we do know who we can thank for clearing up this conspiracy: Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, whose tireless work to declassify the 2018 report for his own ends has, in this case, worked in Clinton’s favor.

U.S. automakers are reporting that Trump’s trade deal with Japan is favoring Japanese automakers over them in yet another reneging on the president’s so-called “America First” agenda.

Trump initially announced a 25 percent tariff on all foreign car imports in April. But on Tuesday, he announced a trade deal that lowered tariffs to 15 percent for Japanese automobiles and car parts. Meanwhile, U.S. car companies still have to deal with the 50 percent tariffs Trump placed on the steel and aluminum they need to actually build their product.

“We need to review all the details of the agreement, but this is a deal that will charge lower tariffs on Japanese autos with no U.S. content,” said Matt Blunt of the American Automotive Policy Council, which represents General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis.

The United Auto Workers union has stated it is “deeply angered” by Trump’s deal with Japan.

“For decades, Japanese automakers have exploited open access to the U.S. market while failing to do right by American workers. Now, instead of addressing the problem, this deal gives them another break—at the expense of the very companies and workers that built the American auto industry into the global standard for good jobs and world-class products,” the statement read.

“A better deal would have held Japanese automakers to the same standards U.S. workers have fought for at GM, Ford, and Stellantis.… If this becomes the blueprint for trade with Europe or South Korea, it will be a major missed opportunity,” the UAW statement continued. “We need trade deals that raise standards—not reward the race to the bottom. This deal does the opposite.”

The president is folding to the countries he tried to strong-arm a few months ago, all while hurting domestic industry in the process. Trump plainly prioritizing Japanese cars over American ones is also likely to hurt working-class people who supported him in states like Wisconsin and Michigan, where auto manufacturing plays a crucial role in the economy.

Terry Gene Bollea, better known as Hulk Hogan, has died at 71. Audio obtained by TMZ revealed that the retired professional wrestler suffered cardiac arrest at his Florida home on Thursday morning.

His manager Chris Volo confirmed to NBC Los Angeles that he died in his home surrounded by loved ones.

Hogan will be remembered for his flamboyance in the wrestling ring—but Mr. America also made notable forays into politics and forever altered the media landscape.

Who could forget Hogan’s speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention?

“When they took a shot at my hero, and they tried to kill the next president of the United States,” Hogan said, tearing off his outer layers to reveal a Trump-Vance tank top. “Enough was enough, and I said, let Trumpamania run wild, brother. Let Trumpamania rule again. Let Trumpamania make America great again!”

Wrapping up the rousing speech, Hogan referenced one of his WWE catchphrases: “Whatcha gonna do when Donald Trump and all the Trumpamaniacs run wild on you, brother?” Trump then blew the wrestler a kiss.

Also during the 2024 campaign, the wrestler threatened to bodyslam Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and made fun of her biracial identity, asking, “Is Kamala a chameleon? Is she Indian?”

And of course, back before the Trump era of American politics was in full swing, Hogan helped take down Gawker Media. After the publication leaked a sex tape of Hogan and a friend’s wife, the wrestler, bankrolled by ring-wing billionaire Peter Thiel, sued Gawker for $100 million in damages. The lawsuit eventually ended in a settlement that tanked the publication, in a significant blow to the free press.

Hogan’s Gawker suit led to the public disclosure of a recording of the wrestler on a racist tirade, in which he freely used the n-word.

“I guess we’re all a little racist,” Hogan said in the video, taped in 2007, and used the n-word to discuss his suspicions about his daughter’s sex life.

The scandal led the WWE to fire and distance themselves from Hogan, who called the remarks “the biggest mistake of my life” and was reinstated into the Hall of Fame in 2018.

This story has been updated.

It seems the city that rose up to protect its neighbors from Immigration and Customs Enforcement is similarly protective of its protesters—especially when they’re being tried on trumped-up charges.

Donald Trump’s federal prosecutor in Los Angeles is struggling to get indictments for protesters arrested in anti-ICE demonstrations earlier this summer, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Grand jury indictments only require probable cause that a crime has been committed—a lower bar than the standard for a criminal conviction. And even so, out of the 38 felony cases filed by Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, only seven have resulted in indictments.

In a recent case, the grand jury refused to indict a protester accused of attacking federal law enforcement officials. And Trump’s prosecutor was not happy: The Times described “screaming” that was “audible” from outside the grand jury room coming from Essayli.

According to legal experts interviewed by the Times, it’s incredibly rare that a grand jury wouldn’t indict in cases like these—which indicates weak cases brought by an attorney whose goal may be to promote Trump’s anti-immigration agenda rather than go after real crime.

Meghan Blanco, a former federal prosecutor in L.A., said the cases are “not deserving of prosecution.” Some may have even been based on faulty intel from ICE agents, the supposed victims of the alleged crimes.

Either “what is being alleged isn’t a federal crime, or it simply did not happen,” she told the Times.

In June, thousands of Angelenos took to the streets to protest ICE raids that saw the federal anti-immigration officers arresting people attending mandatory check-ins at a federal building and snatching people from Home Depot. Though the protests were largely peaceful, some escalated as ICE and the Los Angeles Police Department used tear gas and “less-lethal” munitions on the crowd.

Community organizer and protester Ron Gochez said at the time that it was “brutal violence” but that “what they didn’t think was going to happen was that the people would resist.”

To the Times, former prosecutor Carley Palmer said that Essayli’s struggle to get his cases through was “a strong indication that the priorities of the prosecutor’s office are out of sync with the priorities of the general community.” Yet again, the Trump administration has likely underestimated L.A. residents’ appetite for resistance.

On Wednesday night, Senator Ted Cruz cast cold water on MAGA’s burning zeal to lock up former President Barack Obama for treason.

Joining Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, Cruz acknowledged that the chances Obama is prosecuted for treason are slim to none.

In recent days, Donald Trump’s White House released evidence it claimed proves a “treasonous conspiracy” by the Obama administration to rig the 2016 and 2020 elections. The so-called evidence claims that Obama manufactured intelligence about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election “to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump.”

The president has seized on the purported findings, calling Obama guilty of “treason” and saying, “It’s time to go after people.” Over the weekend, the president took to Truth Social to share memes about imprisoning Obama. Obama’s office has dismissed the allegations, suggesting they’re “a weak attempt at distraction” from the Epstein scandal.

Dashing MAGA dreams of Obama behind bars, Ingraham on Wednesday said, “He’s not going to be prosecuted for treason. It’s not going to happen.”

Though Cruz floated other plans to go after Obama officials, he agreed. “He’s not going to be prosecuted in all likelihood for treason.”

“At all,” Ingraham added.

Cruz cited not the weakness of Gabbard’s madcap accusations—which he called “very important, troubling new information”—but the fact that the Supreme Court greatly expanded the powers of the presidency in its 2024 decision in Trump v. United States, which, per Justice Sonia Sotomayor, makes the individual holding the highest office a “king above the law.”

Cruz’s point is similar to one made on Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, which reminded Trump that the Supreme Court’s ruling applies to all presidents, not just to himself.

“Leave aside the narrow definition of ‘treason’ in the Constitution,” wrote the Journal’s editorial board. “Has Mr. Trump so quickly forgotten his victory at the Supreme Court in Trump v. U.S.? The Justices held 6-3 that a President can’t be prosecuted for exercising ‘core constitutional powers,’ and he has ‘presumptive immunity’ for ‘official acts.’ This surely includes Mr. Obama’s supervision of spy agencies.”