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question everything

(49,472 posts)
Tue Jan 28, 2025, 11:27 PM Jan 28

As a Rising Political Star, Gabbard Paid to Mask Her Sect's Ties to Alleged Scheme - WSJ

To defend and burnish Tulsi Gabbard’s image as her political star was rising, her congressional campaign hired a public-affairs firm in 2017 that tried to suppress coverage of an alleged pyramid scheme connected to her Hindu sect, according to interviews, emails and Federal Election Commission records.

Gabbard, a former House member who is now President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, was raised in the Science of Identity Foundation, a sect tied to a direct-marketing firm accused of running a pyramid scheme in several countries. Neither Gabbard, the sect nor the firm, QI Group, wanted the relationships scrutinized.

Gabbard’s campaign paid Washington, D.C.,-based Potomac Square Group for the PR cleanup, trying to mask the connections. But the operation was directed by a Science of Identity follower—and longtime Gabbard adviser—who sits on the board of a QI subsidiary. The revelations shed further light on Gabbard’s ties to the religious group—publicly described by some former followers as a cult that demands total loyalty to its founder—and to the Hong-Kong based QI, which has been a target of criminal and civil cases alleging fraud and racketeering in at least seven countries.

Lawmakers have looked closely at Gabbard’s connections with Science of Identity and QI ahead of her confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to people familiar with the matter. Gabbard’s ties raise questions about her judgment and loyalty, congressional staffers said.

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As a Rising Political Star, Gabbard Paid to Mask Her Sect's Ties to Alleged Scheme - WSJ (Original Post) question everything Jan 28 OP
Behind every shitty MAGA politician, there's a shitty think tank, megachurch, or radio host backing them. Initech Jan 28 #1
Why are we Just hearing about this Now? Bread and Circuses Jan 28 #2
It's been around... some of us knew it Cha Jan 28 #4
Her ties to Science of Identity Dorian Gray Jan 29 #5
Shit yeah... she FOOLED So many People but Cha Jan 28 #3

Initech

(103,300 posts)
1. Behind every shitty MAGA politician, there's a shitty think tank, megachurch, or radio host backing them.
Tue Jan 28, 2025, 11:43 PM
Jan 28

Out them all. Follow the money.

Cha

(306,795 posts)
4. It's been around... some of us knew it
Tue Jan 28, 2025, 11:52 PM
Jan 28

when she was running for Congress in Hawaii.

I would say things on DU about it but she was supposedly a "dem:" and she had some fans.

Dorian Gray

(13,759 posts)
5. Her ties to Science of Identity
Wed Jan 29, 2025, 05:56 AM
Jan 29

have been known for years. The MLM aspect of the groups associated with it... I wasn't aware of. That's very Falun Gong/Unification Church of them.

Cha

(306,795 posts)
3. Shit yeah... she FOOLED So many People but
Tue Jan 28, 2025, 11:49 PM
Jan 28

not some of us.

I voted for her opponents since 2014 and then she Dropped out.

She's a fucking snake.

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