Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, offers former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, a stuffed elephant as she campaigns for him throughout a rally on the American Preparatory Academy in Draper on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022. Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Information
Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, campaigns for Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, throughout a rally on the American Preparatory Academy in Draper on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022. Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Information
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, speaks as former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, campaigns for him throughout a rally on the American Preparatory Academy in Draper on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022. Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Information
A average Utah Republican and a controversial former Hawaii Democrat — each of whom ran for president — have thrown their help behind Sen. Mike Lee in his reelection bid.
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is featured in a brand new Membership for Development tv advert saying Lee has “unshakeable integrity that’s all too scarce in politics.”
“You won't all the time agree with Mike. I don’t,” Huntsman says within the advert. “However we are able to all agree that principled management and constancy to the Structure are paramount in tough instances.”
Lee, who served as common counsel within the Huntsman administration, endorsed Huntsman amongst a crowded discipline of Republicans operating for governor in 2020. Huntsman misplaced the GOP nomination in his try and return to the Utah statehouse to now Gov. Spencer Cox.
A two-term Republican, Lee is locked in a decent battle with unbiased challenger Evan McMullin within the Senate race.
Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, campaigns for Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, throughout a rally on the American Preparatory Academy in Draper on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022.
Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Information
On Thursday, Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who left the Democratic Social gathering earlier this month, joined Lee at a marketing campaign rally in a packed gymnasium at American Preparatory Academy in Draper.
“Our freedom is at stake,” Gabbard mentioned. Democratic leaders in Washington, she mentioned, are undermining freedom of speech, faith and different rights and attempt to silence those that don’t toe the get together line. She mentioned they're “throwing our Structure within the trash.”
Lee added that these rights have “fallen out of trend for causes that astound me and actually frighten me. However we’re stronger than those that are keen to erode these rights.”
Authorities, he mentioned, tramples on individuals’s rights, and it typically begins with freedom of faith.
Gabbard additionally mentioned girls are underneath assault by these in energy with “all this enterprise about Title IX and trans ideology.”
“They’re attempting to erase us as girls, as a whole class of individuals, saying that we don’t really exist,” she mentioned.
A lieutenant colonel within the Military Reserve, Gabbard additionally known as Democrats “warmongers” who're “subservient to the navy industrial complicated” and are pushing the nation nearer to nuclear battle.
It’s as much as voters to ship politicians like Lee again to the Senate to “push the brakes on this and cease them from destroying life as we all know it,” she mentioned.
Gabbard introduced her break up with the Democratic Social gathering on the primary episode of her new podcast earlier this month. She accused the get together of being pushed by “cowardly wokeness” and “stoking anti-white racism.” Democrats, she mentioned, are hostile towards individuals of religion, demonize the police and help open borders.
Gabbard has made controversial feedback about Russia and Ukraine, together with some that Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, known as “treasonous lies.”
Romney’s remark got here after clips of an interview Gabbard did on Fox Information’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in March had been broadcast on Russian state TV. Gabbard mentioned she was “deeply involved” about claims of biolabs in Ukraine. She additionally posted a video to Twitter claiming there have been greater than 25 “US-funded biolabs in Ukraine which if breached would launch & unfold lethal pathogens.”
“Tulsi Gabbard is parroting false Russian propaganda. Her treasonous lies might properly price lives,” Romney tweeted in March.
As Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, Gabbard tweeted, “This battle and struggling may have simply been averted if Biden Admin/NATO had merely acknowledged Russia’s official safety issues concerning Ukraine’s changing into a member of NATO, which might imply US/NATO forces proper on Russia’s border.”
Gabbard served 4 phrases within the U.S. Home. She launched a protracted shot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and made a marketing campaign cease in Utah. She endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for president in 2016.
McMulllin blasted Lee for bringing in Gabbard, calling her an “apologist” for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Tulsi Gabbard is most identified for her cozy relationship with Vladimir Putin. Sen. Lee inviting her right here to Utah as Putin commits unspeakable atrocities in Ukraine is a horrible mistake,” he mentioned in an announcement.
In the course of the rally, Lee requested Gabbard if she loves Putin.
“For the document, no,” she mentioned.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, speaks as former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, campaigns for him throughout a rally on the American Preparatory Academy in Draper on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022.
Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Information
Lee mentioned he seen demonstrators exterior the varsity grounds Thursday holding indicators calling him a “constitutional con man” and a “Putin puppet,” labels McMullin has tried to hold on him all through the marketing campaign.
Gabbard mentioned McMullin “must be embarrassed” for attempting to smear her and Lee with these sorts of assaults.
Lee learn a January 2021 McMullin tweet during which he wrote the “GOP has change into a ruinous, unpatriotic blight.”
“This can be a man who's out submitting lawsuits as a result of he was outed, accurately, for having mentioned horrible issues concerning the Republican Social gathering. He desires you to consider he’s OK with that. He desires you to consider that he’s a conservative,” Lee mentioned, including McMullin has redefined conservative to imply “that he likes to go on hikes.”
McMullin sued Membership for Development Motion and several other native TV stations for operating an advert he says was doctored to make him say one thing concerning the Republican Social gathering that he didn’t say. Membership for Development defended the advert, saying McMullin isn’t the particular person he says he's regardless of his claims to be unbiased.