Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) in a pair of interviews Monday said vacating her role at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is unrelated to her support for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) presidential campaign.
“Look, this is not about politics,” she told host Alisyn Camerota on CNN’s “New Day.” “This is about the very high stakes that exist in this election.”
{mosads}Gabbard surprised DNC leadership on Sunday by relinquishing her position with the organization and endorsing Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Gabbard had battled with the DNC earlier this year over the process for selecting a party nominee, including the number of debates.
But she said her decision to leave the DNC leadership position had nothing to do with politics in the organization.
“This had nothing to do with the DNC or DNC politics,” she said in a separate appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“We’ve seen that there has been more debates, there have been more forums, which I think is healthy,” Gabbard told host Mika Brzezinski of serving as the DNC’s vice chairwoman.
“There has not been a clear conversation about the contrast between our two candidates when it comes to questions of war and peace. So this is why I resigned from the DNC,” she said.
“This is why I’m supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders — because there is far too much at stake here, and I want to make sure that people know who they’re voting for in the coming days and what the impact of those votes will be.”
Her support gives Sanders his highest-profile congressional endorsement so far ahead of Super Tuesday’s crucial votes.
Gabbard, a major in Hawaii’s Army National Guard, argued on Monday that she prefers Sanders to Clinton because of his foreign policy position.
“I can tell you as a soldier and as a veteran, and what I hear from military families across the country is how real war is,” she said.
“This is something that has a very real cost, and I have seen it firsthand in my first deployment in Iraq, where I served in a medical unit, and I hear about it almost every day from our veterans who have come home and are suffering from these invisible wounds,” Gabbard added.
“We need a commander in chief who will exercise good judgment and foresight and stop getting us into these interventionist regime-change wars. As we’ve seen in Iraq, as we’ve seen in Libya and as we’re seeing now occurring in Syria, the stakes are very high.”