Hillary Clinton Suggests Russians "Grooming" Tulsi Gabbard
WHITFIELD: A bizarre war of words is breaking out between former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and current 2020 Democratic candidate Tulsi Gabbard. It all stems from a comment Clinton made Thursday suggesting that Gabbard, who has been accused of being cozy with Russia with the past, is a Russian asset and being used in the 2020 election.</s>HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm not making any predictions, but I think they have got their eye on somebody who's currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate. She's a favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far. And that's assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not, because she's also a Russian asset.</s>WHITFIELD: Now, Clinton never used the word "Tulsi Gabbard", but the conventional wisdom has been people made their assessments and the inference is there that she was referring to Tulsi Gabbard. Meantime, Gabbard shot back in a tweet saying "Thank you, Hillary Clinton. You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long have finally come out from behind the curtain." Gabbard also had this to say.</s>REP. TULSI GABBARD (D-HI), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She is doing this because it's very clear to her that she knows she can't control me. That If I'm elected president, then she will not be able to come in and try to influence or manipulate me or the policies that I will lead forward for our country.</s>WHITFIELD: Let's talk about this. I'm joined now by CNN contributor Jill Dougherty. She's a global fellow for Woodrow Wilson Center and CNN's former Moscow bureau chief. Jill -- good to see you.</s>JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Hey -- Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: So let me have you listen to what CNN political commentator Van Jones had to say and how the comments of Hillary Clinton just kind of played into the hands of any objective that Russia may have had. Listen.</s>VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: If you're concerned about disinformation, if you're concerned -- what the Russians do is they spread disinformation and get us divided against each other.</s>JONES: That is what just happened. Just throw out some information, disinformation, smear somebody. She's a former nominee of our party and she just came out against a sitting U.S. congresswoman, a decorated war veteran, and somebody who's running for the nomination of our party with just a complete smear and no facts.</s>WHITFIELD: So, Jill -- Russia, check, mission accomplished?</s>DOUGHERTY: Well, often that is the case -- Fred. But I think here this is a complex thing because I understand on one level what Hillary Clinton is saying because many people know that in different elections, not just 2020 upcoming but in 2016 and even before Russia can use people. They can use, let's say, candidates in various ways. It could be like a Manchurian candidate. You remember that movie, you know, where there's a person who is -- I'm not saying that anybody is that, I'm just saying how they can use it. It could be a person who objectively is a willing agent of Russia and they sub rosa, secretly you know, run for office and then they get into office and they do what the enemy wants. Then there can also be useful idiots. And those are people -- it's actually a term, as you might know -- and that is people who espouse a certain viewpoint that's very useful to Russia. They are not objectively agents for Russia at all, but they are exploiting it (ph). Then you have to add a third category of just people who have nothing to do with Russia or another force out there who can be used to deflect or pull away votes from another candidate. I think that may be what Hillary was talking about. However, I think that word, when I hear that word "groomed", that is, I think, a problem because to me that is an old Cold War Soviet term which to me implies complicity by the person who's being groomed. In other words, I'm being groomed to be a spy. And that -- if she is saying that, like if she has information this actually is going on, then she ought to provide it. But using that word to me is a red flag.</s>WHITFIELD: So the U.S. intelligence community has said, you know, Russia is likely trying it again to meddle into the 2020 election. Vladimir Putin himself joked not too long ago about meddling again in the upcoming election. So how seriously do you think national security officials take that comment? How concerned should 2020 campaigns be? How do they brace for, you know, potential Russian influence meddling?</s>DOUGHTERTY: I think obviously they would have to be looking at this as a technique among many different techniques. This is nothing new -- you know, using somebody, exploiting somebody, et cetera. You know, it's been done for a very long time. And I am absolutely positive that our intelligence services know how things like this could be done. We do know that the U.S. intelligence agencies, officials have said that there's no question that Russia will try to get involved and in fact use some new techniques perhaps in the 2020 election. So it is no secret to them. They would be ready if this should be used.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Jill Dougherty -- thank you so much. Always good to see you.</s>DOUGHERTY: Ok.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Still ahead, chaos in the U.K. parliament prompts demonstrators to take to the streets. What's happening there right now could have a lasting impact on the United States as well. We're live on the scene, next.