Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii) denounced the
Democratic National Committee (DNC) for its “lack of transparency” Wednesday night after learning that she likely won't qualify for the third Democratic primary debate.“I think the bigger problem is that the whole process really lacks transparency,” Gabbard told Fox News' Tucker Carlson. “People deserve having that transparency because ultimately it's the people who will decide who our Democratic nominee will be.”“When you see that lack of transparency,” she added, “it creates a lack of faith and trust in the process.”Gabbard, an
Iraq war veteran and staunch isolationist, has reached the individual donor threshold to qualify for the upcoming nationally-televised debate next month but, according to the DNC, has fallen two polls short of clearing the public support threshold as of the Wednesday deadline.Asked to explain why the DNC wouldn't recognize a number of polls that would have helped her qualify for the debate, Gabbard suggested the DNC's standards were opaque and helped propagate the notion that national politics are controlled by a cabal of “political elites.”“Really what they see is a small group of of really powerful political elites, the establishment making decisions that serve their interests and maintaining that power while the rest of us are left outside. The
American people are left behind,” Gabbard said.The DNC came under
fire following the 2016 presidential
election after it was revealed that the institution worked to secure the Democratic nomination for
Hillary Clinton at the expense of Bernie Sanders.Carlson labeled the DNC's efforts on behalf of Clinton “rigging” during the Wednesday night program and suggested similar machinations may be at work this election cycle.“You got sideways with the political establishment last presidential cycle because you didn't jump aboard the Hillary Clinton express immediately,” Carlson said. “Then we learned that there was activity that looked a lot like rigging . . . in order to steer one candidate towards victory and hamstring another.”