Tulsi Gabbard says US ‘not so different’ from Russia on free speech

Former Hawaii congresswoman defended spreading Kremlin-backed conspiracy

Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, has claimed that Russia and the United States are “not so different” when it comes to freedom of expression.

Speaking with Fox News’ Jesse Watters, Ms Gabbard said the situation in the US was “not that different from what we’re seeing happening in Russia”, where news is state-controlled and challenging authority will likely lead to imprisonment, if not death.

“This is what’s so dangerous about the place that we’re in right now as a country,” said Ms Gabbard of the US, where the news is not controlled by the government, on Tuesday. “Freedom of expression is directly under threat and under attack.”

“And you’re right. It’s not so different,” she continued, without any apparent irony. “What’s happening here is not that different from what we’re seeing happening in Russia, where you’ve got state TV and controlled messaging across the board. This is where we’re at.”

Her comments came after the Jesse Watters Primetime host asked Ms Gabbard about “propaganda” being issued by US president Joe Biden and Russian president Vladimir Putin, which he said were both designed “to silence free speech”.

The Fox News anchor did not cite any examples of how Mr Biden and Democrats had tried to “silence free speech”, which is guaranteed by the US Constitution. Speaking out against Mr Putin and his war on Ukraine will, in comparison, lead to 15 years in prison in Russia.

“We are moving in that direction, Jesse,” said Ms Gabbard on Tuesday in apparent reference to Democrats and her opponents. “They’re afraid of the truth ... [The] power elite … are so weak that they know they will not withstand the light of the truth.”

Hosts of The View on Monday referred to Ms Gabbard as a Putin “shill” and Republican senator Mitt Romney said his former colleague was pushing “propaganda” after she parroted a Kremlin-backed conspiracy theory about US-funded biolabs that “if breached would release & spread deadly pathogens to US/world”.

The lies have mainly been seen by the US and Nato allies as a possible pretext for launching bioweapons on Ukraine, with similar action seen by Russia in Syria. China has meanwhile supported Russian and far-right claims about “biolabs”, while failing to distinguish between scientific facilities and bioweapons facilities, of which there are none in Ukraine.

Ms Gabbard followed by saying on Wednesday that she was not, however, “convinced there are biological weapons labs or biological weapons in Ukraine – that’s not what I’m concerned about. I’m concerned about the existence of the 25+ biological labs in that war zone. As I said 2 days ago”. She also challenged Mr Romney to prove her wrong.

The Democrat’s statements also came after an editor for Russia’s Channel-1 was arrested for protesting against Mr Putin’s invasion live on air, and was later charged.