Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard gave an interview to CNN’s Jake Tapper today about her recent fact-finding trip to Syria. The purpose of the trip was to move toward peace in Syria. In addition to the CNN interview, Gabbard sent an email to her supporters and posted pictures and details about the trip to her social media accounts. During the trip she met with Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad. The corporate neoliberal media is predictably turning the story into an opportunity to smear Congresswoman Gabbard by focusing on her meeting with the Syrian President rather than the overall purpose of the trip.

A google search for Tulsi Gabbard yields mostly stories with titles about her ‘secret trip,’ with titles that all but insinuate that she was there conspiring with al-Assad to destroy America. I’m actually surprised I found no articles accusing her of stopping over in Moscow to hang out with Vladimir Putin on the way home.

First of all, the trip was not a ‘secret.’ As Politico reports, Gabbard had to clear the trip before leaving. It simply says she did not notify Paul Ryan or Nancy Pelosi, but last I checked neither of them were Gabbard’s master. Politico also makes it a point to note that Gabbard’s “attempted peacemaking with the Assad regime is not likely to go far,” as if it’s reasonable to think she expected to solve the entire crisis by meeting with the Syrian President for a few hours.

Even worse than the clear slant of the Politico piece is the treatment given to Gabbard’s visit by the liberal establishment website, Talking Points Memo. They focus on nothing except that she met with Assad. No clarification is given for the purpose of her visit. Just a few paragraphs letting everyone know she hangs out with Assad. OKay. TPM is owned and operated by Josh Marshall, a liberal blogger and vocal Clinton supporter during the 2016 primaries. This Reddit thread gives a long list of anti-Bernie-Sanders articles written by Marshall, where he whines about the ‘toxicity’ of the Sanders campaign and chastises Sanders for daring to request that the DNC respect his supporters. Marshall is a fucking shill. He can go fuck himself.

Even worse is the conservative writer, Jim Geraghty. Geraghty went on a Twitter tirade this afternoon denouncing Gabbard for her visit. I’ll post some of those tweets below. But keep in mind that a google search for ‘Jim Geraghty Bernie’ produced as its first result an article in the National Review titled “Bernie Sanders’s Tax Returns Reveal His Hypocrisy.” It’s just another example of the typical empty charge that someone is a ‘hypocrite’ if they advocate for policies that they don’t voluntarily practice under current laws. It’s kind of like saying you’re a hypocrite for advocating for legalized weed if you’re buying your shit from the pizza boy. It’s baseless.

“So, Congresswoman, what was it like when you met with Bashar Assad?”

“I kept getting distracted by his weird chemical smell.” — Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) January 25, 2017

"Pleased to meet you. Hope you guess my name." pic.twitter.com/cMR32cgxy7 — Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) January 25, 2017

The rest of the stories I could find all focus on the same thing: beating the name Bashar al-Assad into people’s heads, ignoring the nuance, bit even mentioning Tulsi’s proposed amendment to stop the sale of arms to Syrian rebels which make their way to ISIL.

There’s clearly an agenda at play. Checkout Tulsi’s Medium article below, as well as her other Facebook posts to find out the TRUTH of what her trip was about, rather than the media’s bullshit spin.