Democrats have criticized former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) for meeting with then-Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2017, but their own leaders — including then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) — did so as well, for years.
FILE – In this April 4, 2007 file photo, Syrian President Bashar Assad meets with U.S. House speaker Nancy Pelosi at Ash-Shaeb presidential palace in Damascus. Pelosi arrived as the highest ranking US official to visit Syria since 2003 for talks with the Syrian leadership on the strained relations between Syria and the U.S., to convey a peace message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to President Assad, and to discuss Iraq and other regional issues with Syria. Pelosi’s visit was criticized by the US administration. (AP Photo Hussein Malla).
In addition to Pelosi, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) also met with Assad, in the wake of the former’s failed presidential campaign. Kerry and his wife were later seen dining with Assad and his wife, ignoring the dictator’s brutal rule.
Former US presidential candidate John Kerry meets with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad 08 January 2005 in Damascus. Kerry, who arrived in Syrian yesterday from Iraq, held talks with Syrian leaders at a time of tense relations between the two countries. Relations between Syria and the United States have been increasingly tense since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, with Washington imposing sanctions early last year for, among other things, Damascus’s alleged failure to stop insurgents crossing into Iraq. AFP PHOTO/SANA/HO (Photo by SANA / AFP) (Photo by -/SANA/AFP via Getty Images)
In 2012, Breitbart News published a “rogues’ gallery” of photographs of American politicians who had met with Assad. Most were Democrats, but the list included a small number of Republicans as well. The purpose for such visits was at first to present an alternative to the George W. Bush administration’s policy of isolating Assad, and then, under President Barack Obama, to attempt to build relations with Assad as part of outreach to the Arab and Muslim world.
Gabbard’s later visit to Assad, motivated by concerns for the fate of Christians and other minorities in Syria during the civil war, has been at the core of claims by her critics that she would leak intelligence secrets to U.S. enemies, including Russia, if she were confirmed as Director of National Intelligence, the position to which she has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump. Democrats have, without evidence, accused her of being a Russian spy.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
