U.S. congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard resigned from her position as Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee in order to support Bernie Sanders‘ presidential campaign.
“As a vice chair of the DNC, I’m required to stay neutral in Democratic primaries,” Gabbard said in a video address announcing her resignation. “But I cannot remain neutral any longer. The stakes are just too high.”
Gabbard endorses Sanders in this video, and she does so mainly because of his foreign policy views. Gabbard herself has served two tours of duty in the Middle East as part of the U.S. military. She believes that Sanders “will not waste precious lives and money on interventionist wars of regime change.”
The video was posted on Sunday, the day after Sanders lost the South Carolina primary to Hillary Clinton by a huge margin. It seems like Clinton is secure as the frontrunner again. She’s often called “interventionist” for her own foreign policy views, and she supported the Iraq War in 2002.
Perhaps these are the high stakes that Gabbard is talking about. During her endorsement, Gabbard characterizes the choice between Sanders and Clinton like this: “We can elect a president who can lead us into more interventionist wars of regime change, or we can elect a president who will usher in a new era of peace and prosperity.”