Former Democrat presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesday accused President Joe Biden of committing "treason" for allowing another world leader to dictate the U.S. goal in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Gabbard took to Twitter to chastise Biden and his administration for letting Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lead the way following Russia's unprovoked attack on its Eastern European neighbor.
"Every time this Admin has been asked what the goal of our war with Russia is, using Ukrainians as our proxy, (i.e. how will we know when victory is achieved?) they've dodged the question by declaring the president of Ukraine will make that decision & the U.S. will follow ... his leadership," Gabbard tweeted Wednesday morning.
"So, the most important foreign policy position our country has faced in the last 60 years is not being made by US Congress or an American president, but by the leader of a foreign country."
Gabbard, former congresswoman from Hawaii, tweeted three comments made by Biden administration officials:
- "At the end of the day, what this looks like, what end state looks like will be defined by the Ukrainians and not by us. And so we'll leave that up to President Zelenskyy and his leadership to talk about how this transitions." — Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, May 23, 2022
- "The end state is defined by the political leadership, and in this case, President Zelenskyy is going to define the end state inside the boundaries of Ukraine." — Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Mark Milley, May 23, 2022
- "President Zelenskyy is the democratically elected president of a sovereign nation, and only he can decide what victory is going to look like and how he wants to achieve it." — then-Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby, April 29, 2022
"If handing over American sovereignty to the leader of another country isn't treason, what is?" Gabbard ended her Twitter string.
Gabbard tweeted on a day Biden said that the U.S. will significantly increase its military presence in Europe for the long haul, including by establishing its first permanent presence in Poland, to bolster regional security after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at the opening of the alliance's annual leaders' summit in Madrid, Biden said "NATO is strong and united" and that steps to be taken during the gathering will "further augment our collective strength."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.