A little more about that troubling meeting between Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard and Donald Trump.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

Gabbard, a favorite of incoming White House senior counselor Steve Bannon, is the first congressional Democrat approached to have a face-to-face meeting with Trump—and the first Bernie Sanders supporter to do so as well. Sensing criticism from the left for taking a meeting with Trump, she put out a statement in which she justified her foreign policy meeting as necessary so that the left and right could find “common ground.” 

But she also included pro-Assad apologia in the mix, arguing that the United States should not confront Russia because it could lead to conflict and indicating that the Assad regime should remain in place, calling any attempts to remove him as “illegal.” 

“I shared with him my grave concerns that escalating the war in Syria by implementing a so-called no fly/safe zone would be disastrous for the Syrian people, our country, and the world,” Gabbard said. “It would lead to more death and suffering, exacerbate the refugee crisis, strengthen ISIS and al Qaeda, and bring us into a direct conflict with Russia which could result in a nuclear war.” 

That might sound like standard issue progressive anti-war rhetoric, but coupled with her past statements and actions, it’s more of a plea to let Assad be. In March, for instance, Gabbard was the only Democrat and one of just three members of Congress to vote against a resolution condemning violence by the Assad regime against civilian populations. 

And she has long been a defender of the Putin regime, writing for example in September 2015, on the first day of the Russian intervention in Syria, “[I]t’s mind-boggling that we protest Russia’s bombing of these terrorists.” Russia is responsible for attacking U.S.-backed opposition forces in Syria, an aid convoy delivering relief to civilians, and medical facilities. 

By taking the meeting with Trump and making such a statement afterward, critics argue, Gabbard is giving the Trump administration the guise of bipartisan support for ignoring Assad’s war crimes, which include bombing civilian populations and the use of chemical weapons. Gabbard and Trump also see eye to eye on closing the door on refugees. 

“For years, both individuals have advocated a free pass for murderous dictators, while intensifying scrutiny on mothers and children sitting in refugee camps who would like to come to the United States,” said Evan Barrett, a political adviser to the Coalition for a Democratic Syria, a Syrian-American opposition umbrella group. “Tulsi is very much a part of the inward-facing mind-set that gave us President-elect Trump, and no one should be surprised when they join hands to appease despots and shut the door to the world’s most desperate people.”

You know I have been concerned about Gabbard ever since she quit her post with the DNC to  endorse Bernie Sanders, and now there is growing evidence to suggest that she may not be the true blue Democrat that she has painted herself to be.

In fact she once responded to criticism of her father's anti-LGBTQ statements with this e-mail: 

“I smell a skunk,” [Gabbard] wrote. “It’s clear to me that you’re acting as a conduit for The Honolulu Weekly and other homosexual extremist supporters of Ed Case.”

That does not sound like something most Democrats would say, now does it?

Oh and the comments from her father that she was defending were these: 

When HONOLULU interviewed Gabbard in 1992, he told the magazine, "Homosexuality is not normal, not healthy, morally and scripturally wrong." At the time, he also suggested that the repeal of sodomy laws across the country in the '60s and the American Psychiatric Association's decision in the '70s that homosexuality was normal and not a mental illness, led directly to the AIDS epidemic of the '80s.

Yeah, I think it is becoming clear what Gabbard's attraction to a Trump administration might be.

And it appears that she is under serious consideration to be included in it as well.