WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nov. 3, 2017) — U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (HI-2) released a video Thursday again calling for major reform to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in response to an exposé of a rigged presidential primary written by Donna Brazile, the interim DNC chair who stepped in after Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was removed.
In a prepared statement Gabbard said that what was heard from Donna Brazile is what many suspected for a long time — that it is actually true that the DNC secretly chose their nominee over a year before the primary elections even occurred and turned over control of the DNC to the Clinton campaign. The deep financial debt, closed door decision-making, complete lack of transparency and unethical practices are now front and center, she said.
“Today’s news points to how deeply broken our campaign finance laws are, and how they have only served to weaken individual candidates, while empowering political parties and special interests,” Gabbard said. “These laws essentially allowed the Clinton campaign to bypass individual campaign contribution limits by funneling millions of dollars through the DNC and State parties, taking control of the DNC in the process.”
The recent retaliatory purge within the DNC Executive Committee of supporters of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (MN-5), the new statements offer more evidence that the DNC and the campaign finance system need to be completely overhauled and reformed, Gabbard said. The reforms must make the party empowered by people and take control back from the special interests of a powerful few, she said.
“We must bring about real campaign finance reform,” Gabbard said. “The DNC must get rid of the undemocratic system of superdelegates, who have the power to swing an election, making up one-third of the votes any candidate needs to secure the nomination. The DNC must push for open or same-day registration in Democratic primaries in every state across the country to ease and encourage voter engagement instead of making it more difficult. If there is any hope of strengthening our party, they must stop this ‘more of the same’ mentality and start caring more about people than protecting the status quo.
“No more games. No more retaliation. No more picking winners and losers,” Gabbard said. “We must act now to take back our party—a party that belongs to the people—and fight for a new path forward that is open, transparent, accountable, inclusive, and that actually strengthens our democracy.”
Gabbard is a Democrat who has served as the U.S. Representative for Hawaii’s Second Congressional District since 2013. She was Vice Chair of the DNC from 2013-2016, when she resigned to support Bernie Sanders for President. She has been calling for an end to superdelegates in the Democratic Party’s nomination process and open Democratic primaries. Gabbard is a Major in the Hawaiʻi Army National Guard and has served on two Middle East deployments. She is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
