Democrats have criticized former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) for meeting with then-Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2017, but their own leaders — including then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) — did so as well, for years.
BREITBART -- In addition to Pelosi, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) also met with Assad, in the wake of the former’s failed presidential campaign. Kerry and his wife were later seen dining with Assad and his wife, ignoring the dictator’s brutal rule.
In 2012, Breitbart News published a “rogues’ gallery” of photographs of American politicians who had met with Assad. Most were Democrats, but the list included a small number of Republicans as well. The purpose for such visits was at first to present an alternative to the George W. Bush administration’s policy of isolating Assad, and then, under President Barack Obama, to attempt to build relations with Assad as part of outreach to the Arab and Muslim world.
Gabbard’s later visit to Assad, motivated by concerns for the fate of Christians and other minorities in Syria during the civil war, has been at the core of claims by her critics that she would leak intelligence secrets to U.S. enemies, including Russia, if she were confirmed as Director of National Intelligence, the position to which she has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump. Democrats have, without evidence, accused her of being a Russian spy.