Tulsi Gabbard Gives Mitt Romney, Keith Olbermann One Week to Retract 'Treason' Comments

Tulsi Gabbard has sent a formal notice to Keith Olbermann and US Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) demanding they retract statements made last month accusing the former US representative of “treasonous lies” in relation to comments made about Russia’s special operation in Ukraine.

The former Hawaii representative announced the cease and desist letters in a Wednesday tweet, saying, “When powerful, influential people make baseless accusations of treason, a crime punishable by death, in order to intimidate, silence and censor those who speak the truth, it has a chilling effect on our democracy. This cannot go unchecked.”

The letters are in response to tweets by the two men that both accused Gabbard, a Lt. Colonel in the US Army Reserve, of being a paid agent of the Russian government.

The precipitating event was a 13 March video posted to Twitter by Gabbard in which she called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine in order to safely dispose of the pathogens kept in US-funded biolabs in eastern Ukraine, which the Russian military had recently revealed the details of. The US has decried the claims as Russian propaganda, even though US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland confirmed the reports.

There are 25+ US-funded biolabs in Ukraine which if breached would release & spread deadly pathogens to US/world. We must take action now to prevent disaster. US/Russia/Ukraine/NATO/UN/EU must implement a ceasefire now around these labs until they’re secured & pathogens destroyed pic.twitter.com/dhDTH5smIG

— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) March 13, 2022

That same day, Romney tweeted that “Tulsi Gabbard is parroting false Russian propaganda. Her treasonous lies may well cost lives.”

The following day, the topic arose on popular daytime talk show The View, with the hosts suggesting the US revive the practice of "look[ing] into people who are Russian propagandists and shilling for Putin", as co-host Ana Navarro put it, referring to Gabbard and to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has also challenged the Biden administration’s narrative about Ukraine.

Tulsi Gabbard is parroting false Russian propaganda. Her treasonous lies may well cost lives.

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) March 13, 2022

They are Russian Assets and there is a war. There's a case for detaining them militarily. Trials are a sign of good faith and patience on the part of democracy.

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) March 14, 2022

In response to a clip of the segment being posted to Twitter, Olbermann, a former sports journalist and MSNBC host, responded by writing: “They are Russian Assets and there is a war. There's a case for detaining them militarily. Trials are a sign of good faith and patience on the part of democracy.”

Gabbard’s letter to Romney and Olbermann demands they “cease these false, defamatory, and malicious claims” and that they “retract/takedown all such statements made about Gabbard and destroy all copies of those statements.” She gave them until 27 April to confirm they will comply or enter a settlement.

She discussed the situation further in a Fox News appearance later on Wednesday, telling Carlson: “When powerful and influential people basically threaten and intimidate people into silence as Mitt Romney, Keith Olbermann, and others keep doing, they’re hoping to achieve that effect that if anybody dares speak out against the government, that if anybody dares to criticise whatever the permanent Washington establishment narrative is, then you will be smeared as a treasonous traitor.”

“If Mitt Romney is serious, seriously believes that I have committed treason, why hasn't he brought any evidence or brought charges? He clearly doesn't care that there are any consequences or as I mentioned he's just trying to intimidate and bully me and others into silence,” Gabbard added.

The accusation against Gabbard isn’t a new one for mainstream Democrats, either: in 2019, failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who blames her 2016 loss to Donald Trump on unsubstantiated claims of “Russian interference” in the US election, claimed that Gabbard was "the favourite of the Russians".

At the time, Gabbard was one of three candidates in the Democratic presidential primary race willing to criticise the mainstream Democratic consensus on US militarism, with the other two being author Marianne Williamson and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Gabbard represented Hawaii in the US House of Representatives, but ended her term in 2021 without seeking reelection.