5 reactions to Zelensky's speech to Congress: 'Churchillian courage' or a 'whole lot of hypocrisy'?

Tulsi Gabbard

Tulsi Gabbard, who represented Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives for eight years before retiring to run for president in 2020 and later switching her party affiliation to independent, discussed Zelensky's speech on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Wednesday.

The former congresswoman characterized Zelensky's presence at the U.S. Capitol as "the manifestation in front of our very eyes of a whole lot of hypocrisy." She stressed that "the Biden administration's whole foreign policy is essentially based on democracies and autocracies" and sees the world as divided "between these two categories," with the U.S. obligated to "lead the charge for democracies to defeat the autocracies."

Gabbard rejected the classification of Ukraine as a "thriving democracy" and Zelensky as a "hero." She countered by asserting that "when you actually look at what Zelensky's democracy is, you see no freedom of the press" because "he has shut down any media that he does not control, his government does not control."

Expressing concern that "he's shut down the biggest [Ukrainian] church in the country," Gabbard read from an article claiming that the Ukrainian leader has "threatened to punish 'any Christian worshipping in unapproved ways.'"