Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex | Lex Fridman Podcast #423

Tulsi Gabbard tells Lex Fridman the military-industrial complex is thriving more than Eisenhower feared, and accuses the Biden administration of deliberately blocking Ukraine peace talks.

• KBR/Halliburton charged ~$35 per soldier per meal in Iraq; Gabbard estimates the company made trillions while Filipino contract workers earned $500/month.
• Gabbard resigned as DNC Vice Chair in 2016 because Debbie Wasserman Schultz unilaterally tilted the primary toward Hillary Clinton, violating DNC neutrality rules.
• She calls Hillary Clinton the queen of warmongers and says the media never held Clinton accountable for her foreign-policy record during the 2016 primary.
• Gabbard claims the Biden-Harris administration actively thwarted early Ukraine-Russia peace negotiations that began weeks after the invasion, prolonging the war.
• She argues the Obama administration betrayed its own anti-surveillance rhetoric by siding with the National Security State after the NSA leaks, despite his Senate floor speeches against the Patriot Act.
• On the TikTok ban: the bill contains a VPN surveillance provision that she says reveals a broader government agenda to control platforms and monitor citizens.
• Trump’s core strength, per Gabbard, is that he entered office without needing Washington’s approval — but his failure was surrounding himself with warmongers who undermined his non-interventionist agenda.

Guests: Tulsi Gabbard — U.S. Army Lt. Colonel (ret.), former Democratic congresswoman, 2020 presidential candidate, author of For Love of Country · 2024-04-02 · Watch on YouTube