New York Times October 24, 2019
The presidential campaign of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) came to an abrupt end Wednesday night when she was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head, an apparent suicide.
Gabbard’s body was discovered in the early hours of Thursday morning in her D.C. apartment. Neighbors said that they heard two gunshots in rapid succession, and medical examiners report that she sustained two bullet holes to her head, which the D.C. Police Department called “a classic suicide.”
Congressman Gabbard had recently been involved in a high profile spat with Hillary Clinton, who had accused the late Congresswoman of being a Russian spy. Gabbard had, in turn, accused Clinton of being a “warmonger.”
Contacted by the Times on Thursday morning, Clinton began laughing hysterically when asked about Gabbard’s death. She then asked “you’re not suggesting that I had something to do with it, are you? Are the police suggesting that? This is outrageous. A classic conspiracy theory, straight out of Moscow.”
The Times informed Former Secretary Clinton that the death had been ruled a suicide, and that she was not under suspicion. Mrs. Clinton then apologized, and expressed her condolences over the death of Gabbard, but added that it was “a triumph for democracy, and for human rights in the Middle East.”
“As the old saying goes, a nation can suffer its fools, but it’s the Russian agents you have to watch out for,” Clinton added.
Upon news of Gabbard’s death, the Anti-Defamation League released a press statement condemning the late Congresswoman as an enemy of Israel, and a threat to democracy in the Middle East. The statement was later retracted, with a second statement being issued saying that the League was unaware she had died.
Despite the consensus by authorities and the media that the death was a suicide, conspiracies about Rep. Gabbard’s suicide began to run wild on the internet, with Russian bots amplifying the message that the Clintons or Israel could be involved in her demise.
Twitter announced that they would be banning anyone who questioned that the late Congresswoman’s death was anything other than a suicide. The company released a statement saying that the FBI had identified conspiracy theories as a leading cause of domestic terrorism, and that people spreading false rumors about Gabbard’s death could lead to persecution of the Jews.