Tulsi Gabbard’s rise to power potentially guided by ‘controlling cult’ leader: report

Former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard may have been “guided” throughout her more than 24 years in politics by Chris Butler, the leader of a group countless ex-members have described as a “cult,” an extensive report from The Washington Post revealed Sunday.

Gabbard began her career in politics as a Hawaii state House representative in 2002, climbing the ranks over decades before being appointed as Director of National Intelligence last year, a position she resigned from last Friday citing her husband’s deteriorating health.

However, after obtaining “hundreds of confidential memos,” the Post revealed that much of her decision making over the past two decades – from what she should say to what bills she should introduce – may have been “guided” by Butler, who founded the Science of Identity Foundation, a new religious movement that began in the 1970s, which some scholars have called a “cult.”

“Former devotees had been telling me for weeks that Butler controlled his followers’ major life decisions and demanded total obedience and secrecy,” the Post’s Jon Swaine wrote. “They said he spent years working to extend his reach into politics – and they suspected Gabbard’s rise in Washington was the culmination of that effort.

The memos, Swaine revealed, included specific guidance and direction on a number of different topics.

“Dozens of attached memos appeared to document directives and advice for Gabbard from her time in Congress,” Swaine wrote.

“Some contained instructions on what legislation she should propose, which policies she should embrace and how she should conduct herself on television. They had an air of authority. A memo about a proposal to partition war-torn Iraq into three states quoted an unnamed person as saying it was ‘time for TG to come up with this idea.’”

Other memos obtained by Swaine included “harshly critical” language, he wrote, flagging one from January of 2015 that contained a “derisive assessment” of Gabbard’s response to an annual address delivered by former President Barack Obama.

“In the first place, nobody gives a s--- what you think about his State of the Union speech, unless you’re going to say something of interest,” the memo read. “You’re not even trying. You’ve become really intellectually lazy.”

Swaine continued, “In another, Gabbard was described as ‘chickens---’ and “mealymouthed” for her comments on a policy proposal.”