“Shouldn’t there be some kind of investigation of this?” Neera Tanden wonders.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-HI, an Iraq war veteran, has come under fire for secretly traveling to Syria to meet with the civil war-torn country’s dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Lawmakers from both parties have criticized the Hindu American congresswoman for conducting a week-long stealth trip to the Arab nation, during which she visited Damascus, the capital, and Aleppo.
Gabbard’s office said in a press release issued on January 25 that she went to Syria “to see and hear firsthand the impact of the war in Syria directly from the Syrian people.”
It said among those who the congresswoman met during the visit to Syria and Lebanon include President Aoun and Prime Minister Hariri, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth Richard, Grand Mufti Hassoun and Archbishop Denys Antoine Chahda of Syrian Catholic Church of Aleppo..
“She heard stories of suffering, pain, courage and hope from people all across the country,” the release said. “She met with refugees, Syrian opposition leaders who led protests in 2011, widows and family members of Syrians fighting alongside groups like al-Qaeda, as well as those fighting on the side of the government.”
However, her critics, both within Congress and outside, are furious.
“An elected official, a representative of the United States, went on a secret trip to meet with the brutal dictator who had murdered nearly half a million of his own people — it’s reprehensible and cannot be justified,” Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger told The Hill newspaper.
“Shouldn’t there be some kind of investigation of this?” Neera Tanden, president of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, tweeted.
Shouldn’t there be some kind of investigation of this? https://t.co/mKPKXQRdWh
— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) January 27, 2017
A headline at the liberal activist website Daily Kos read: “Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has turned into a stooge for Syria’s dictator. Who will primary her?”
Gabbard, a popular political figure among many Indian Americans, has been a political gadfly lately. The Hawaii second district representative, who backed Bernie Sanders during the primaries, infuriated fellow Democrats when she met Trump during the transition. It prompted some Democrats to encourage primary challengers in 2018.