Tulsi Gabbard

I'm grateful that I knew why I was running for Congress.

I mean, in a nutshell, it was those experiences that I had during my deployments.

And my eyes were opened in a way that I couldn't pretend, you know.

that those lessons that I had learned, experiencing the cost of war, seeing the war profiteering up close and personal, I left those deployments knowing that I wanted to be in a position to do something about it.

Because I was frustrated and pissed off by the politicians who would come in and drop in, and you know this, they drop in for a day, shake some hands, take some pictures and take off and go back to Washington.

talking about like, oh, I know exactly what's going on in the war.

I've been to war 20 times.

Like, bro, no, you don't.

You don't actually.

No, you should.

You should go and do the research.

You should go and actually, instead of just taking a photo op, why don't you go and sit down with the guys?

Not just the stars.

Yep, you can listen to them too, but go and actually sit down with the guys at Chow and ask them what's really going on.

Actually listen to what's really going on.

Don't think that you already know.

I came out of that knowing I wanted to be in a position to make those decisions about our country's foreign policy, about war and peace and the well-being of our brothers and sisters in uniform, both while they're in uniform and after they lay it down.

I didn't know exactly where I wanted to be, like, you know, where in the government or what position.

I looked at a lot of different things.

But ultimately, that's what drove me to run for Congress.