Democrat presidential candidate Andrew Yang is defending fellow White House contender Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seemingly referred to the Hawaii Democrat as a “Russian asset.”

“Tulsi Gabbard deserves much more respect and thanks than this. She literally just got back from serving our country abroad,” Yang wrote on Twitter Friday evening.

Tulsi Gabbard deserves much more respect and thanks than this. She literally just got back from serving our country abroad. — Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) October 19, 2019

In August, Gabbard, a military combat veteran, took a two-week break from her campaign to attend Army National Guard training.

Yang’s tweet comes after Hillary Clinton smeared Gabbard as “the favorite of the Russians,” who was being “groomed” by the Kremlin as a potential third-party candidate.

Appearing Friday on a podcast hosted by David Plouffe, President Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign manager, Clinton claimed: [Russia] has a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting [Gabbard] so far. That’s assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not because she is also a Russian asset.”

“They know they can’t win without a third-party candidate, and so I do not know who it’s going to be, but I can guarantee you they will have a vigorous third-party challenge in the key states that they most need it,” she added.

Hours later, Gabbard blasted Clinton in a series of tweets, calling her the “queen of warmongers” and the culprit behind a hit piece published by the New York Times prior to Tuesday’s Democrat presidential debate:

Great! Thank you @HillaryClinton. You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain. From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a … — Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) October 18, 2019