Tulsi Gabbard’s Campaign Is Being Boosted by Putin Apologists

The Hawaii congresswoman is quickly becoming the top candidate for Democrats who think the Russian leader is misunderstood.

by Lachlan Markay, Sam Stein, Daily Beast, 05.17.19 (excerpts)

Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination is being underwritten by some of the nation’s leading Russophiles.

Donors to her campaign in the first quarter of the year included: Stephen F. Cohen, a Russian studies professor at New York University and prominent Kremlin sympathizer; Sharon Tennison, a vocal Putin supporter who nonetheless found herself detained by Russian authorities in 2016; and an employee of the Kremlin-backed broadcaster RT, who appears to have donated under the alias “Goofy Grapes.”

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But the list of controversial donors to Gabbard, as detailed by her filings with the Federal Election Committee, doesn’t end there.

Susan Sarandon, the famous actress who earned the enduring wrath of Democrats for her support of Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the 2016 election, gave Gabbard $500.

Ali Amin, the president of Primex International, wrote two checks of $2,800 to Gabbard’s campaign. Amin, who runs the international food distribution company, pleaded guilty in 2015 to charges that he’d transferred more than $17 million between Iran and the United States as part of an unlicensed business transaction….

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some prominent figures in the white nationalist community have flocked in Gabbard’s direction. David Duke, the former KKK leader, has heaped praise on her. And on several occasions, Richard Spencer, the avowed white supremacist, has tweeted favorably about her, including once again this week….

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