Tulsi Gabbard Announces She Is Leaving 'Woke' Democratic Party, Calling It 'Elitist Cabal'

Bill Pugliano/Getty Tulsi Gabbard

Former U.S. representative and onetime presidential contender Tulsi Gabbard says she is leaving the Democratic Party, accusing it of stoking "anti-white racism" and claiming its leadership is "an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness."

Gabbard, 41, made the claims in the debut episode of her new show, The Tulsi Gabbard Show, which was uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday and is devoted to her reasoning behind leaving the party.

"I can no longer remain in today's Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, hostile to people of faith & spirituality, demonize the police & protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponize the national security state to go after political opponents, and above all, dragging us ever closer to nuclear war," Gabbard says in the video.

Emails sent to Gabbard regarding her new political affiliation were not immediately answered.

Elsewhere in her video, Gabbard said today's Democratic Party "stands for a government of, by, and for the powerful elite," and called on others to join her in leaving the party.

"If you can no longer stomach the direction that so-called woke Democratic Party ideologues are taking our country, I invite you to join me," she said.

In using inflammatory rhetoric like "elitist cabal," Gabbard seems to be openly flirting with the same language used by the QAnon conspiracy, the false, pro-Trump theory that claims the former president is facing off against a shadowy cabal of Democratic elitists.

Gabbard has promoted conspiracy theories before, such as earlier this year, when she shared false information about American involvement in Ukraine biological laboratories (a theory pro-Russian groups were using as justification for the country's ongoing invasion of Ukraine).

RELATED: Who Is Tulsi Gabbard? What to Know About the Headline-Grabbing 2020 Candidate & Hawaii Lawmaker

Gabbard represented Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District in the House of Representatives from 2013 to 2021. She made headlines when she launched a long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, often breaking from the party when it came to issues such as American relations with Russia.

Gabbard has written pro-Russia tweets even amid the country's invasion of Ukraine, but her apparent friendliness toward the country didn't earn her much support from her former party during her 2020 bid for the presidency.

Scott Eisen/Getty

Speaking on a podcast at the time, Hillary Clinton described one Democratic candidate as an "asset" for Russia, though she did not name any names.

"I'm not making any predictions, but I think [the Russians have] got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate," Clinton said on former Obama adviser David Plouffe's podcast. "She's the favorite of the Russians."

Responding in a series of tweets following Clinton's remarks, Gabbard — who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders over Clinton in the lead up to the 2016 election — fired back at the accusation, labeling Clinton a "warmonger" and the "personification of rot."