The question as to whether Dem Presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard is a “spoiler” has been around ever since she announced her bid for the U.S. Presidency. Some in the mainstream media have even accused her of being a Russian plant out there to forment chaos in the Democratic Presidential nomination thereby handing Trump an easy win. Tulsi’s camp has of course vociferously denied these allegations

The Russian propaganda machine that tried to influence the 2016 US election is now promoting the presidential aspirations of 2020 Democratic candidate Tulsi Gabbard. https://t.co/UmJ8Qc4elk — NBC News (@NBCNews) February 2, 2019

When news came out after the first Democratic Presidential debate that Tulsi was the most Google-searched candidate, rumors flared up again with some claiming that Russian troll bots were the ones engineering those searches. Google even temporarily shut down Tulsi’s advertising campaign during these wild searches which the tech giant characterized as “suspicious”. Team Tulsi countered Google’s action with a massive $50 million dollar lawsuit accusing the tech giant of among other things, violations of her free speech rights. The lawsuit is still pending in federal court.

The “Tulsi is a Russian plant” controversy however officially blew up yesterday during the second Democratic Presidential debate in Detroit where she eviscerated one of the leading and beloved Dem Presidential candidates Kamala Harris over her record as a California prosecutor.

Tulsi takes down Kamala Harris over her record on criminal justice reform, the death penalty, and the war on drugs -TULSI2020 #DemDebate #Tulsi2020 https://t.co/7XQoiqHThu pic.twitter.com/epf58iQNYI — Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) August 1, 2019

The issue that got most people’s attention is not the fact that Tulsi eviscerated Senator Kamala Harris, but the manner in which Fox News and it’s most valued customer President Trump, amplified the attacks. This to many “Tulsi is a Russian plant” enthusiasts was the “a-ha” moment they’d been waiting for. You don’t have to take Yours Truly’s word for it, just look at mainstream media’s S.E. Cupp‘s Tweet which says it all. So Team Tulsi before you start gunning for Yours Truly, a near certainty at this juncture, maybe you should go after mainstream media’s S.E. Cupp first.

The Fox/Trump camp is pushing Tulsi’s performance tonight, as they did after the first debate. Ask yourself why. #DemDebate — S.E. Cupp (@secupp) August 1, 2019

Bottom line in every election cycle there are always accusations of “spoiler” candidates–you’ll remember Jill Stein in 2016. Yours Truly is by no means saying Tulsi is the spoiler candidate in 2020. All Yours Truly is pointing out is that this “Tulsi is a Russian plant” narrative has been simmering amongst grassroots Democrats for a while now and it appears to have finally boiled to the surface after last night’s debate. Why is Trump’s favorite TV network Fox News so interested in and even cheering on Tulsi? Is Tulsi the Trump candidate? All these are questions that will only get louder as the Dem Presidential nomination contest progresses and as Trump famously says, “We’ll see what happens.”

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You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com