Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said Wednesday she met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a trip last week to Syria.
Rep. Gabbard has taken a stance at odds with her party’s leaders and that of most congressmen. She recently accused the U.S. of supporting the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, and she repeated this belief in a Medium post about her Syrian visit.
The Hawaii congresswoman wrote that she met with President Assad, Lebanese leaders, the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon and several other individuals. Gabbard wrote their message was that “there is no difference between ‘moderate’ rebels and al-Qaeda (al-Nusra) or ISIS — they are all the same.”
Gabbard went on to write that the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar all supported jihadi terrorist groups in Syria. The congresswoman encouraged the U.S. to not push for regime change as it “certainly isn’t in the interest of the Syrian people.”
President Donald Trump met with Gabbard in November, and she was reportedly under consideration to become ambassador to the U.N.