[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There were no non-white people. And so, you know, she grew up, she's a cheerleader, she was this, she kind of had the all-American upbringing. So she's a white person too. She is a white person. Haoli as we say in Hawaii.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or it can just be like, okay, you happen to be Caucasian and howly, but yeah. So yes, my mom is howly, um, based on her skin color. And, uh, and, uh, yeah, my dad Polynesian grew up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I grew up essentially in the south and uhm, it was so stark their upbringings and to hear both of them tell stories about it because, you know, my dad's going to elementary school.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and he, he's told me how like the teacher asked, asked all the kids, okay, where are you from? And he raised his hand. He's like, I'm from Samoa. And she said, what?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Somalia? You're from Africa? He's like, no, no, no, Samoa. It's, you know, and that was it. Like all the kids started making fun of him. He's the only kid with brown skin in the class.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, you know, would go out, go out in town and, and, and get called, get called the N word, get scolded out of, you know, the men's bathroom and told you got to go use the colored bathroom. Um, you know, there's no water fountain. You got to go use the hose in the back because the water fountain is for whites only. And, and so as he was so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Confused coming from Samoa and then Hawaii and he's like, I mean, I'm not, I'm not black. I'm like he was, it was, it was at a young age, this kind of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Being confronted with racism obviously, but also just confusion on his part.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, so fast forward, he's going to college in California. Mom's going to University of Michigan. They both had summer jobs at Yosemite. And which is how they met. And uh, famously.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So they're working at a cafe in Yosemite, dad's checking mom out, and uhm, asked her out, and she's like, okay, like, let's go, she's like, do you play tennis? He's like, yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He didn't play tennis, at all. He's like, okay cool, let's go play. As their first date. So they went out in the tennis court, she beat him, six love, six love.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Love and what became a very healthy competition. He, he then later on went and became a actual tennis pro.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And my mom, I think, actually I think they were going out for a little while and my mom had decided like she wanted to marry this guy and told my grandma. And my dad happened to be in the garage about to walk in the door and started to overhear this conversation inside the house. And uhm, heard my grandmother's response to my mom saying, Carol, but he's not even white. How can you marry him?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I turned around and went back and got in the car and went and took a little bit of time. Uhm, but it was just a reflection of the complete stark differences and where they were from and you know, their views of the world and obviously they fell in love with my dad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was, uh, yeah, bringing together of two different people, two different backgrounds. And ultimately, you know, my dad took her away from the mainland and, and to, to Samoa where they both went and as teachers, they both got jobs as teachers there. My mom was doing, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She was a speech therapist, so helping kids who had different kind of speech issues. And, uh, dad became, I think the assistant dean of the community college there, he was an English major.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so they, the three, there's five kids in our family and the three middle kids, uh, were all born there. And then we moved to Hawaii when I was two years old. So Hawaii's been home for me ever since.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that was one of my earliest memories. So, so I'm four of five. So my little sister was, is the baby of the family and she was, she was born in Hawaii and, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She basically, she came a little sooner than expected and so my dad delivered her at home quickly and I watched that happen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have, I vaguely remember, pretty much, I don't remember, like I can't visualize it, but I do remember being somewhat traumatized by it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That we went to and then, uhm, and then they ended up, the school had to close down for one reason or another.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then anyway, they ended up teaching us, we were homeschooled, and they ended up teaching us and a bunch of other kind of kids in the neighborhood at home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then they, they're, they're entrepreneurs at heart. They've always been even in back in Samoa, they were teaching, but they had a Mike's tennis or Mike's sports shop. They had his little sports shop. And so they've always had some kind of side gig happening and always different ideas for new businesses. And eventually they opened a kind of family style deli restaurant, healthy, healthy eating.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so they've done a lot of different things in their lives and, uhm, it's always been, uh, family, family affairs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we, I remember us sitting around in the family living room and having a brainstorm session and we're all, we are all quite competitive. Uh, and the deal was whoever get, whoever comes up with the name of the restaurant gets one free dinner at the restaurant. Wow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, it was, so there's a five year gap between me and my closest brother. The three boys are about two years apart and then.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a story that my dad loves to tell, which is that after the three boys, my mom was like, that's it, I'm done. She got her tubes tied, she was seriously done, she wasn't just saying it. This is in Samoa.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Way back when, where the hospital today is still probably about


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So uhm, it took my dad a few years, but he finally convinced her to, to, uh, have more kids. So she went to the hospital in Samoa. She's like, okay, gotta undo what I did here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I didn't have, I didn't have a specific profession in mind or career path or anything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Understand and realize from a really young age, even before high school, that uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think two big, two big things. Number one was that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was happiest when I was, uh, when I was doing things for other people. So, you know, we'd go out and we'd do like beach cleanups and, and, you know, growing up in Hawaii is I love the ocean. I literally like, I learned how to swim at Ala Moana beach, you know, in, in the, in the shore there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Deep appreciation and a kind of a sense of being a protector for our home. And so, you know, we, we, we go out and, and, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, do beach cleanups and do other things. And I just, I just felt happiest when I was doing things for others, when I, when I could be of service and, um, understood and realized from a young age that that's what I wanted to do. And, and really in a deeper spiritual way, understanding that, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was happiest when being of service to God and what better way to be of service to God than to care for and to serve.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] God's children and, and this, this planet. So that was something that I knew in a decision I made very early on, but what exactly that would look like, how, you know, what path that would take. I had, I had no.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that death was something that could come at any time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I knew that I, I wanted to and needed to make the most of my life and the time that I had in understanding how precious that was.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was no kind of external trigger. Uhm, I think it really came from


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Spending time in prayer and meditation, frankly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because, I mean, this was something, this was something that, you know, God has been the center of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, it's the center of my parents' marriage, and it's not, not in a sectarian way at all, just understanding, hey, real religion is love for God, and however you choose to worship at home, or a church, or a temple, or a mosque, or whatever, however you choose to develop that relationship with God, that, that you're happiest,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Allowed me at a young age to realize that truth and not in a way that like, Oh my God, I'm so scared. I'm going to die. Like I could die tomorrow. Not, not, not in a fear filled way at all, but rather just a sense of understanding the truth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, therefore, surrender that, surrender to that, and surrender


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To knowing that, hey, my life is ultimately in God's hands. And also knowing that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, therefore understanding that being free from the fear of death.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But understanding also how precious this, this life is and wanting to do my best to make sure that I didn't waste, waste it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, as a kid, he had grown up memorizing a verse, I think, or a prayer that said,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so as a kid, he's thinking, okay, know, love, and serve God. In order to love, like the first step of that is you have to know God. How can I know God so that I can love and serve Him?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you know, having the depth of that personal, uhm, relationship with God and, and ultimately, uhm, they both found their ways again through different paths to, uhm, looking at, you know, Eastern spiritual practices and meditation and, and found, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that are also not sectarian, like you don't convert into Hinduism, you don't convert out of it their timeless kind of universal spiritual teachings of bhakti yoga, something called bhakti yoga and karma yoga, bhakti yoga being


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A spiritual practice in, in seeking to live your life in, in loving service to God and karma yoga. If people are familiar with the word karma, uhm, which really means action and karma yoga meaning, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, Krishna from the Bhagavad Gita. You know, we watched Jesus of Nazareth like 1600 times because that was one of the few movies we were allowed to watch as kids growing up. And uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, celebrate, celebrate, uh, uh, celebrations like Johnostomy, which is, which is the, the celebration of the appearance of Krishna in this world over 5,000 years ago and celebrate Christmas and set up the Nativity scene and sing Christmas carols. And there was never, ever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Any, any sense of contradiction or having to choose one or the other?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and there was no contradiction because frankly when you get right to the heart of it, once you get past all the, all of the unfortunate uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] God has many names. There's one God. He has many names. And, uh, it doesn't matter. None of that, none of, none of the, the superficial matters if in your heart, uhm, you're doing your best to love God and to serve Him. And so that's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That, that I'm grateful to have been able to realize myself from a, from a relatively young age and knew that that is how I wanted to live my life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We weren't, we weren't sheltered. It kind of closed off. Um, we had a lot of, you know, there's a lot of kids in the neighborhood and, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Spend the rest of the day, like either wiping tables or hanging out with customers and just talking story and, and uhm, like that was a little bit of a second home for us. You know, did gymnastics, did martial arts, did all the things and uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then I, I transitioned, I was, I was definitely more of a, I, you know, tried ballet as a little girl too, and me and ballet didn't jive so well. So, uh, my sister was definitely more of like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was the kid that, and maybe echo can relate, I'd never liked wearing shoes and would purposely, like we'd go hiking up a mountain and I'd be like, pff, shoes. Shoes are for weak people. I need to make my feet tough cause I don't want howly feet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're brothers who, who had a lot of fun, uhm, making me and my sister do really stupid, uh, torture's a strong word, but you know. We'll call them challenges? Yeaah, let's call them challenges. Challenges that really had no good outcome one way or the other for, for us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So my sister was born in Wahiwa, and uhm, that's where we lived then, but most of my childhood was, uhm, in Kalihi Valley.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and then later, later was like, uh, downtown Honolulu. So, little, little diverse, little, little slice of each, each of the different kind of cultures and communities on Oahu.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That would have been... like, I don't know, 97 I think?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I figured out like, okay, you know, we're going and doing beach cleanups on the weekends and every weekend we come back and there's more trash on the beach. Like how do we start to try to solve


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is our home. This is our playground. And here's what happens when you, when you do that. And, and I came up with like, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, like a fun little skit called The Adventures of Water Woman. And a friend of mine who's an artist came up with like a workbook and a coloring book for, for kids. And I thought elementary because you know, obviously kids are starting to figure things out. And uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so we, we, we had this, this two day program. One day was the skit and the workbook. And then the next day we actually took kids out to, to like a field trip and like testing water and understanding like, okay, here's like clean water versus dirty water.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, the skit was really a day in the life of Oily Al and, you know, he'd be out there like, you know, throwing his trash out on the street or changing the oil in his car and then dumping the dirty oil down a storm drain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you dump your dirty car oil down the storm drain, it's going to kill all the fish in the water. And you know, when telling the kids when you go surfing, the water is going to be really gross. And it was just the coolest thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, it would at least plant a seed for them to understand and appreciate their consequences to your actions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We care very much about our home. And so stop and think for a minute before you do something. Or if you see uncle or auntie like, hey auntie, don't throw your trash out the car window. And, and be able to start to make more of a, you know, behavioral kind of change and impact, um, to protect our home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He, uhm, he and I, my, so the first person in our family who ran, actually ran for office was my mom. She ran for Board of Education. Uhm, I think it was in, yea, it was in 2000.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With the aim of working in the TV and film industry, uhm, Leeward Community College and, uh, starting the TV and film production course out there and then was going to transfer to a mainland school, uhm, to be able to continue, continue that kind of education.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A couple of things happen. Uh, my financial aid package fell through and I couldn't afford it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To come to the mainland and so, and then the other thing was just, um, uh, there, there was a, an open, uh, seat in the state legislature where I lived. And I, I, I.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I and a whole bunch of other people, we went out and got petitions and we organized and ultimately thankfully we were able to get that, that project canceled. But it, it got as far as it did because of a politician who is kind of in the pocket of the landfill company.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so I started to think, you know, I can, I can stand on the outside and hold a sign or circulate a petition, or I can try to put myself in a position of influence and decision-making to directly impact a lot of these environmental issues that I really cared a lot about. And that's what led me to, uh, run for state house in 2002. Uh, my dad, I was 21.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And my dad, that was the first that my dad ran for city council that same year. So it was kind of, it was kind of fun for us to share. So you ran for city council out in Waianae. And I was running for state house in Eva Beach. And so our districts, like they, they didn't overlap really, but they were adjacent to each other. But every morning it was like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, send him out and, and I went out and we were sign waving every day and knocking on doors every day for, for months. Um, but that was, that was both of our introduction into running for office.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then put, choose to put myself in a position where I'd have to learn how to give speeches. I'd have to figure out how to pick up the phone and call total strangers, which was anxiety inducing in and of itself. But not only do that, but ask them like, Hey, would you like to donate to my campaign?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For a state house to then go like, I never forget the first day I went to go knock on doors. Like I knew enough about...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'd done enough research to know, okay, if I'm going to run for this seat, I'm going to run to win. And in order to do that, I have to convince this many people to vote for me in order to win this race. And so I had, I had the math figured out and I had the voting list, people's addresses and names and, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Saying this is who I am and so I had, you know, copies of that that I went and made at the copy shop and, and I sat in my car. It's like a aqua-colored geo-metro, two-door geo-metro, uhm, on old Eva Beach Road in, in Waipahu and, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I was terrified. Absolutely terrified. Just thinking of every scenario that could possibly go wrong. But also like, what are the first words that need to come out of my mouth?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then what if they ask me this question? What if I don't know the answer? Just all of these different things. And, and, you know, like, one knocked on the first door and like this wonderful old Filipino lady answered the door and she's like, hey, how are you? Wonderfully kind and offered me a glass of water and like the whole thing's like, oh my God, okay. Then went through the whole scenario all over again for the next door.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whole scenario, like every single door was, was a major obstacle, uh, for me. And, and ultimately like, why put myself through this and, and how did I get through it? It, it really just, it, it, that groundedness and, and the ability to step way outside of anything I was comfortable with came from,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, that, that desire to serve and knowing that ultimately keeping reminding myself ultimately like, why do you care so much about yourself? This is not about you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you wanted to do something for yourself, you would certainly not be doing this. You'd be out surfing right now. And, um, and that was, that was my introduction into, uh, into elected politics.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Serving in different buildings all in the same kind of, you know, quarter, quarter mile, quarter square mile area in Honolulu. It was fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah. It, it- Life. I never once thought-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, when I won that election, it was a five-way Democratic primary first that I had to get through, and then a general election that I got through. Uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then, you know, we'll see, we'll see where it goes. And I ended up serving just one term there because of Iraq.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I was, yeah, so I was, I was, um, just starting my, my campaign, uh, to run for the state house when that happened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We knew in some way, uhm, when 9-11 happened and obviously we're in Hawaii, you know, we're six hours behind New York on that day. So we woke up to turning on the news and it had already happened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Almost right away that I wanted to do something to go after and defeat the terrorist that attacked us then.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I just didn't quite know exactly how to do that because I was, I had already made a decision to pursue this particular path of, of being able to serve Hawaii. And uhm, so eventually.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Eventually I felt that, that I had learned about the national guard and what it's about and, you know, serve your state in its time of need, but also be ready to stand up and serve your country and, and, uh, decided to enlist in early 2003.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because I felt that would be a way that I could accomplish both objectives, essentially.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just, just through stories, uhm, he passed away while I was still relatively young and, and because they, he and my grandmother lived in Samoa, we didn't get a ton of time together. Uhm, my dad had, had, and his high school best friend had tried to enlist to serve in Vietnam.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To go through all the medical exams and stuff, he wanted to be a medic. And, uh, when they came out, my dad had been rejected, um, for medical reasons. It may have been flat feet or something like that. And he was, he was totally heartbroken, but his best friend came out and was enlisted.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wished that he had been able to do, just to be able to serve. And so uhm, that was, that was pretty much the most of my personal, no one else in my family, some of my uncles had served, but again, we're in Hawaii, so like we don't, you know, we don't get to see them or hang out with them that much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so I, I had, I was in the state legislature at the time, and so I had to, I, I, you know, took the ASVAB and everything, the recruiter's like, yeah, you can, you can have whatever job you want, just tell me what you want to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And literally made the decision, I was like, look, my session is done on this date.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then I got to be back by this date. So find me a basic training and an AIT that can fit within these, like this five month period. I got to knock it all out at once. And so I ended up, uh, in a, um, like medical, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know, operations or something like that because the AIT was only seven weeks long. I was like, oh, I want to do like, uh, what is it combat journalism or something like that, but you got to go to school for six months or whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I shipped out right after the legislative session was done. I enlisted on the, uh, actually on the floor of the state house and, uh, went to Fort Jackson the summer of 2003.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We were pulling duty at like the battalion headquarters one afternoon, uh, like watching the door or whatever it was. And the battalion sergeant major walked in and did what sergeant majors do. Uh, he's like, Hey privates.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How are you and where do you come from and what'd you do before you joined the army? And you know, that whole conversation. And so he talked to my battle buddy first and she told him, I think she was from the Midwest and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't, I don't know, uh, I, you know, the in-processing paperwork that says, what is your civilian occupation? I, I wrote it down and turned it in, but you know. Who's your drill sergeant?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but I'm really, you know, I'm happy that I went in with the perspective of at least just understanding that whatever the madness is, there's a purpose to it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And don't get, I, I, I just, I've never, I've always been a pretty chill person. And I don't get freaked out by that much. And uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so I actually in a very weird and twisted way really loved it. It was, it was the camaraderie and the kind of bond that is built in a very short period of time with a whole bunch of strangers from all over the country knowing that and appreciating


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Came back home at the end of 2003 from training and then the 29th brigade combat team from the Hawaii national guard was activated. I want to say, um, the notification came out in the summer of 2004. I was.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because they, they already had somebody who filled, you know, that job in the medical, uhm, in the field medical company. And so I immediately called my commander and just said, Hey, like what's, what's the deal here? I don't see my name on the roster. And he said, Tulsi, congratulations. Like you get to stay home. You don't have to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I, I just said, no, um, I, I just, you know, I, I knew that there was no way I could stay back and that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To, you know, sit in my office in the state capitol and watch everybody leave was not an option for me. And so I, I continued the conversation with my, my, my commander and I just said, sir, I'm going.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I, I kind of, I publicly withdrew from my re-election campaign. It was too late to take my name off the ballot, but told everybody, like, I'm not, I'm not running for re-election.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We started our active duty train up, uh, I think it was in August of that year, 2004. And then we were in country in early January, 2005.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, it was medical logistics, uhm, so supply, uhm, which as you know- And you're a specialist at this point? Yea, I was an E4. That's kind of a fresh E4.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, as, as you know, like, okay, I filled, I filled the position, but once we actually got there, I ended up becoming, uhm, I ended up filling...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, a position that was previously held by an E7, um, as the brigade surgeon operations person. And so kind of was working, you know, like line of duty paperwork and injuries and, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We were in, uh, Balad, in LSA Anaconda. Uh, most of us were there, that was kind of the base, and then we had units in Camp Victory in Baghdad, and in a couple other, kind of smaller fobs out, uhm, in different areas, and, and so I moved around, I moved around a little bit, kind of going out and visiting some of our, our units.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot. Yeaah, I came back, and my family told me this after, I don't think I fully realized how much I had changed, uhm, but it was something that they immediately noticed in uhm, in coming back just


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and that, that really came from, you know, I, I talked a little bit about how realizing from a young age, like death can come at any moment. Well, that's, that's a philosophical realization and being there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So there was, there was within the first couple of days of, of us arriving there, it's a big camp, massive. And so, you know, I kind of was going out and like, okay, orienting myself, where's everything at? And I noticed right away at, at the north gate of that camp.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that none of us would ever forget that today could be the day.


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[Assistant] Coming home, I knew there was absolutely no way that I could just go back to the life that I had left behind as though I didn't just experience it. Like the people were like, oh, you're going to go back and run for your seat in the state legislature. You're going to pick this up and kind of like hit the play button on my life that had been paused. And it was impossible.


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[Assistant] I didn't even think about it because I knew that somehow this experience that I had had, I wanted, I wanted to do something, um, positive with it, uh, in, in being able to impact the kinds of decisions.


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[Assistant] That took us all to that war, uh, in the first place.


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[Assistant] 2006. Yeah, so we were in country for a year and, uh, and then, you know, had the demobilization when we came back. And, uh, so it was 2006 and I was trying to figure out, okay, what, what am I going to do? There was no obvious answer to the question that I was asking, which was how can I, you know,


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[Assistant] Which, kind of unheard of, uhm, you know, the power of incumbency is very real.


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[Assistant] Plus he's like the kindest, most aloha guy you will ever ever meet in your entire life. No one has a bad thing to say about him, but he got this challenge that came out of nowhere and I didn't know him at all personally. I had no personal relationship whatsoever.


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[Assistant] I did have some, some interaction with, uhm, that was not positive, and so I was, I was like, okay, I'm gonna go volunteer full time for Senator Akaka. Make sure that, that, uhm, that he wins his re-election, uh,


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[Assistant] And so, um, after volunteering on the campaign, his chief of staff said, Hey, do you want to come and work in Washington? And, um, as a legislative aid and, and help him with that work on the committee and, and, you know, environment and energy, natural resource, few other areas. And so that's what I did. Um, I ended up going and working with him in Washington for a couple of years.


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[Assistant] While in Iraq, working on my degree. Going in the education center tent and you know, like, okay, sometimes you got mortars coming in and the alarm sounds, you gotta go in the bunker and come back out and.


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[Assistant] So yeaah, I was, I was continuing my education while I was there. Uhm, and I had gotten just enough credits. You needed 60 credits to go to OCS and I had just enough credits to go. And I was still working on my degree when I was in DC and I was, you know, working there and so I was kind of working full time and doing school at night.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but yeaah, slid in, slid in, uh, and then got, I think you needed 90 credits to get your commission.


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[Assistant] I loved, I, I, I knew obviously OCS is to train leaders, but I didn't know going in, um, the depth of that. And that was why, that was why I wanted to go through OCS. When I graduated from basic training, I was like, I want to be the sergeant major of the army one day.


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[Assistant] All about it. And then, you know, I got a deployment under my belt and got to witness some, some examples of great leadership. Also some examples of leaders that were lacking in a lot of areas and especially in a deployed setting in a dangerous way.


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[Assistant] Be a, a good leader of soldiers. And, and I love, and I tell kids who come and ask me like, hey, I think I want to join the military, become an officer.


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[Assistant] Very biased. Yes, you can go do the West Point thing and that's great.


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[Assistant] It provides you with the essential tools to, to begin your leadership, uh, path. And I just, I loved it so much that I ended up going back as a tech officer after I had gotten a deployment as a platoon leader under my belt and then I loved it even more.


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[Assistant] Uh, at Fort McClellan that uses the same program of instruction as the, as the Fort Benning program, but just condenses it down to, I think it was maybe 10 weeks. And the, like, you know, the difference is like they,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, all op orders, like no access to technology whatsoever. So everything you were doing, it was like, you're writing it, you're writing your, your six page op order yourself and.


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[Assistant] Uhm, you know, it sucked as you're going through it, of course, but, you know, I'm old enough now, I'm approaching 18 years now in the Army Reserves and, uh, so I'm like one of those old people who's like, man, you guys got so good now.


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[Assistant] Yeah, we were, um, it was a different, it was a different mission for the brigade and kind of each of the battalions were tasked out in a lot of different areas. A lot of our, our infantry battalions or cab battalions were doing convoy security from within Kuwait and out of Iraq.


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[Assistant] Um, my platoon was attached to a field artillery battalion and we were, we, I, and I'm so grateful for this, but we were, we were physically located very, very far away from the flag pole. Um, and then the big bases that, that exist in Kuwait. So we were within an active Kuwaiti naval base.


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[Assistant] Like high level security, if we had VIPs coming into Kuwait or, and we worked with the embassy a lot, we did a lot of stuff in and around the embassy. So like PSD, like personal security. Um, you know, we did security for a lot of the ammunition movements from the ports to where they had to go.


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[Assistant] Uh, and then also, um, we did, I had a training mission, which was the, which was the fun one for me. It was being able to go and train the Kuwaiti army on.


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[Assistant] It was, it was, it was interesting for me though, because uhm, you know, platoon leader for a military police platoon.


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[Assistant] In Kuwait, where I didn't realize until we got there, they don't allow women on their bases at all. It doesn't matter if you're the general's wife or you're a janitor. There are no women.


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[Assistant] Big ball of hair on the back of my head, and I didn't know what they were gonna do at the gate.


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[Assistant] I had, I had uhm, two. Two females in my platoon. There, uhm, one was an E3 and one was an E4.


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[Assistant] The rest were, you know, these are guys who are working state, local, or federal law enforcement mostly at home in their civilian jobs.


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[Assistant] Just about all of them had, uh, at least one or two deployments under their belt. And so they're, they're seasoned, experienced guys. Um, but yeah, so I, I showed up, I showed up on day one and, you know, kind of showed my ID card at the gate and the gate guard was, didn't really know what to do, but.


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[Assistant] He saw, you know, he saw the American flag and he was like, well, okay, go ahead. And, and so, uh, my, I was, my partner in this was a master sergeant at E8 and, um, super, super cool, easygoing guy. And, and so we went and we started to, uh, we got introduced to the guys that we'd be training.


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[Assistant] We ended up doing a number of iterations of different groups of guys, but, um, you know, kind of went down the line shaking hands and saying hello. And, uh, there was probably half of the Kuwaiti guys who.


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[Assistant] I was invisible. There certainly was no shaking of hands, certainly no eye contact or even acknowledgement that I was standing there.


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[Assistant] And you know, okay, got it. Challenge.


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[Assistant] How do you go from, like, I don't exist in your universe to actually being able to help provide you with some instruction and develop the rapport necessary to be able to do that? And uhm, you know, so I, I...


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[Assistant] I'm kind of drawing from maybe the aloha in hawaii of just recognizing, hey, you know, we're, we're different people, different backgrounds, different language, different culture, different everything, but I respect, like, I respect you, and uhm,


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[Assistant] I'm going to treat you with that aloha, that respect. And, um, gradually I started to see the ice kind of started to thaw.


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[Assistant] Gradually it got to the point and I knew I knew I had made progress. We sat down for lunch and they started to share their lunch with me.


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[Assistant] Yeah, here, try my food. Like, oh yeah, awesome, like cool, yeah, that's really good. And it got to the point where uhm, on, on their graduation day of that first group, their commander


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[Assistant] I'm very grateful, uhm, to have been able to experience, experience that and recognizing the bigger significance.


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[Assistant] Um, impossible barriers to get to a place where you have mutual professional respect and understanding, uh, and, and the power of that alone. And there are obvious parallels that we could point to in today's world here in America.


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[Assistant] The aloha that I strived to bring every day to my work in Washington is you start with


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[Assistant] You start with, okay, what, what is, what is the common ground that we can stand on comfortably together coupled with what is our shared objective? What is the thing that we are trying to accomplish and recognizing that


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[Assistant] If you can find some commonality in both of those places, then you recognize that it's not about you. It's about this shared goal and purpose that you have. And then pfft, like you'll find a way. You'll figure it out.


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[Assistant] That sounds exactly like one of the first things I was introduced to as a new member of Congress, where I, the message was delivered very clearly from the leadership.


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[Assistant] Uhm, within the, within the Democratic Party and, and some of my Republicans went through some of the same stuff on their side, so this isn't about one party or another, but the message being like, hey, look, this is about winning the election. And if we're in power, it's about keeping power. If, if we are not in power, it's about how, how do we get it back? And so if there's a bill, for example.


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[Assistant] That deals with whatever. Let's say it deals with transportation. Something about as universally agreed upon as you can get. Like, we need to move from A to B. All of us do.


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[Assistant] So there's a bill on transportation infrastructure and it's introduced by a Republican.


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[Assistant] You don't support that bill. You should support one that could be virtually identical.


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[Assistant] As long as there's a Democrat name at the top that's leading that effort because that will allow the Democrat person and the Democratic party to then take credit for it, which will then be put on a brochure or a TV ad that you can use in the next campaign, which will get us closer to.


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[Assistant] And that is exactly where the lack of alignment exists because you have a political infrastructure where both political parties are ultimately, and this is not every single person, but if you look at the goals of the leadership of both parties, it is about power. So right, you know, I, I served in Congress for eight years.


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[Assistant] Uhm, for the first, uh, like half of my time there, Republicans were in charge, Democrats were in the minority.


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[Assistant] And then Democrats won and took over the house. Democrats are in charge, Republicans are minority. And you just see it play out where.


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[Assistant] Whoever's in power is trying to keep power. Whoever's not is trying to, is trying to take it and there's no alignment because they're looking out for their own interests.


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[Assistant] Who can then bring their ideas where you have debate and conversation. You have bills that, that theoretically go through committee where you can offer amendments and try to strengthen whatever the proposal might be or kill it if it's a bad idea. And then you've got to vote on the floor. Like this is civics 101 that we learn about in school.


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[Assistant] It does not exist in reality though today because instead of figuring out, hey, how do we work out our differences and come to that same goal of like, how do we fix?


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[Assistant] All of the potholes in our roads in Hawaii and all over the country.


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[Assistant] Okay, we need to invest in some infrastructure. How do we do that? How much money? How is this best going to be executed instead? And, and we saw this play out over, you know, when Trump first got elected, I, reporters asked me, what, what do you think Tulsi is the one thing, like what's the low hanging fruit?


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[Assistant] I and most other people said infrastructure. Every community needs it.


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[Assistant] This is a domestic job creator that actually solves real problems that need to be solved.


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[Assistant] It never happened. There was no infrastructure bill that even really came before Congress for any serious consideration. And why is that? Like the most low-hanging fruit that everybody agrees on that objective didn't happen.


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[Assistant] Because of partisan differences and an unwillingness to say, okay, yeah, Democrats had a certain idea and a certain dollar amount. Republicans had a different idea and a different dollar amount.


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[Assistant] But there was never any real good faith, serious effort to say, okay, where can we meet in the middle? What am I willing to give up? What are you willing to give up? So that we can actually start to deliver on fulfilling the needs, the very real needs that exist within our communities.


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[Assistant] I would say most. I would say most, and not because they're bad people necessarily, but if you look at the system that exists.


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[Assistant] The power that the political parties have is massive.


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[Assistant] And, uh, unfortunately there are too few people who go to Washington willing to


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[Assistant] We'll pull you off the committee that, that you're on that you really like, or maybe we're not going to consider your bill on, we won't allow your bill to come to the floor for a vote. And sometimes these are very direct statements that are made and sometimes they're, they're signals that are sent.


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[Assistant] In an indirect way, and uhm, so the result of having too few people who are willing to kind of stand up and make decisions based on


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[Assistant] Either enjoy and get right into playing the political games, um, and are all about it. And then you have other people who maybe unwillingly or, or, or even as they are disheartened, but feel like they have no other option than to play the game. And so it, you know.


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[Assistant] Uh, and frankly, it's because they see, they see people like me, uh, you know, President Obama was president during, you know, I was sworn into Congress in 2013, so his first four years, and then I had President Trump as president for the last four years that I was in Congress, and in both cases,


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[Assistant] You know, if there was an issue that I agreed on, it was Obama or Trump, I spoke out and said it. If there was an issue I disagreed on, Obama or Trump, I spoke out and said it.


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[Assistant] Which is, which is, is, is kind of heresy in Washington because the expectation is even if it's the same exact scenario, the same exact situation, if it's your person in the White House,


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[Assistant] And you don't like it, you don't say anything. But if it's the other party, then pfft, I mean the world is gonna end. Look at this terrible thing. And it's such a blatant double standard and so hypocritical. I think this is one of the reasons why voters are just like, come on, like, we can see what you're doing.


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[Assistant] Exactly, but, you know, they exist within this bubble where...


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[Assistant] The, the, it's, I mean it is, it's, I've talked about this before, it's kind of like high school. There is a popularity contest and it's both people, it, it, it's this ecosystem where people really care a whole lot about what parties they're invited to or who answers, answers their phone calls, uhm, as far as politicians.


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[Assistant] I'll give you an example, very, it is, it is literal. It's not like, you know, it's not an analogy. It's, it's literal. There, there was, you know, in the, in the pre-COVID world and maybe even in the pre-Trump world, um, the White House Correspondents Dinner is like the big event of the year. And it is hosted by the media.


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[Assistant] And uhm, I remember, you know, I happened to get an invitation to go the first year I was there without knowing anything about what it was. And I was talking to some of my colleagues, they were like,


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[Assistant] Like this guy, my friend, he's like, I've been here seven years and I've never been invited to that. Like, hook a brother up.


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[Assistant] And it was so, I mean, it was so surreal to me, especially because having gone from that where I was invited to go to that or other things, you know, like the first few years I was there. And then, uhm, you know.


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[Assistant] I stopped getting those invitations because like, hold on a second. She's actually like challenging whatever the narrative is or challenging decisions made within her own party or saying or doing things that didn't fall within the mainstream of popularity in Washington, DC.


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[Assistant] That's not just whatever literally the emailed talking points are of the day. Then, you know, it turns into something else.


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[Assistant] I came back from my second deployment in 2009 and kind of faced a similar, um, pivotal decision point on, on what to do next. And just like the first deployment, I came back with this same kind of sense of purpose and mission of wanting to find a way to be in a position where I could,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I could help influence decisions or make decisions about our country's foreign policy and about our military and.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but didn't know exactly what or how I would do that. There was no obvious choice. Uhm, at that time I had applied for something called the White House Fellows Program.


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[Assistant] A senior special assistant to a cabinet member or to the president or the vice president. So you kind of, you know, jump in your way up to directly being able to help influence and impact issues.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think three days of, um, assessment essentially, which consisted of, you know, we're told, okay, as soon as, literally as soon as you arrive there, you're being assessed by the judges. I think there were 12 judges and ultimately they would choose probably 12 people out of maybe, I think maybe there are 20 of us there.


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[Assistant] And so whether it was the, the welcoming reception, uh, or these actual boards essentially that, that you would go individually and sit before there's, you know, I think four different, um,


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[Assistant] And then there was something that, uh, they gave us an exercise where all of us who were there, we had to pull names or positions out of a hat.


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[Assistant] And so I think the position I got was White House Chief of Staff. Someone else was the President. Someone else was the Vice President. And then they say, okay, here's the scenario.


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[Assistant] Execute, like you've got 15 minutes to prepare and then you go and execute.


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[Assistant] And so role playing scenario, kind of war gaming thing. And, um, and the judges are just standing there watching and just trying to figure out, okay, what are the dynamics and you know, who are the alphas and who's taking charge and who's just like the wallflower sitting on the edge and how do you make decisions, thought process, that kind of stuff. It was, it was a really cool.


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[Assistant] Experience long story short, I didn't get picked. Why don't you think you got picked?


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[Assistant] I don't know. I really don't know. I sought out a couple of the judges that I had developed a little bit of a rapport with to kind of get some feedback. And, and this was part of the thing, like every step of the way, people who were former White House fellows who had given me some mentorship on how to approach the process.


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[Assistant] In advance, and, and some of the judges, like, uh, they were like, oh, you're a shoo-in. You, like, you are exactly the kind of person that this program was built for. And, uhm, and so I...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then, uh, so when I was, I was riding the Metro in DC and I remember getting off at Union Station and coming up the escalator and then my phone buzzed with a voicemail. Of course I was waiting for the call.


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[Assistant] And, uh, the voicemail said, hi Tulsi, we regret to inform you. So for that moment, I was just like, I was, I was incredibly disappointed, obviously. But then had to reset, be like, okay, so like that's off the table.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so I ended up, I ended up, uh, uh, you know, I knew that I was continuing to see what, what, what can I do? And I ended up running for, uh, and getting elected to the Honolulu city council.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And focusing on those potholes and, um, you know, trash and sewers and parks and law enforcement.


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[Assistant] Um, for two years until my former boss, Senator Akaka retired from the U S senator announced he was retiring. And the, uh, one of the members of Congress said that she was going to run for his seat, which left a vacancy in the house. And, um, ultimately that's, that's where I made the decision.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I made the decision to run knowing that specifically in the United States Congress, I would be exactly where I needed to be to try to influence and impact those decisions.


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[Assistant] There were six people who ran, you know, it's strong democratic state. So the real election is the primary election. And there were six people who were running in that democratic primary, but the main person who was kind of the.


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[Assistant] But who was also the former mayor of, of Oahu, the city and county of Honolulu. And so, you know, just for some perspective, our state has about 1.4 million population.


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[Assistant] And the district that, that we were running for, uhm, there's, there's two members of Congress from Hawaii. One is kind of the urban.


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[Assistant] Representative that, that has almost the whole South shore of Oahu, the urban, the kind of densely urban populated area. And then the other member of Congress, which was the seat that I was running for has, um, the West side, North shore and East side of Oahu and all of the neighbor islands. And so I came into this, uh, with.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it was about 2% known name recognition in that district because my city council district was actually in the other, um, it was in the urban part of Oahu. So there was again, no overlap in those districts and the guy, you know, the front runner in the race, he had everybody in the state knew who he was.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, that's a, that's a whole other, whole other conversation, but, uh, so, so the, the challenge was, was pretty great to go from like 3, like 3% against 100% and somehow I had to try to cover that gap. Uhm, and I just, you know, I remember meeting with, with some, some of the, the political, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, elders for lack of a better word in Hawaii and letting them know that people I had decent relationships with, letting them know that I was going to run and why, and getting a lot of patronizing responses back saying, you know, Tulsi, or I think I was 30 at the time, 31.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're young, you have no chance against this guy. So just, you know, don't waste your time and come back and try again in like 20 years. You'll be great in 20 years. And uh, I was like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So first I had to, um, fundraising is a huge thing because I needed to be able to have the resources to let people know I existed and who I am. First of all, just my name, period.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where I went and traveled to each island and spent a lot of time in communities with individuals, with groups, small groups, large groups, introducing myself to them, uh, and answering their questions and letting them know why I wanted to serve them, uh, in Congress, what kind of leadership I would bring, where I stood on, on different issues that they cared about. And, um, ultimately what happened was.


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[Assistant] Five months before election day, my, I was polling at 20% to the front runners, 65. And then the rest was split between the other people.


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[Assistant] Election day comes around, uh, in August of 2012.


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[Assistant] And all the way up until about two weeks before the election, the local media and even some of the national coverage was just like, this guy's, this guy's got it. I had heard from other people, he was already interviewing staff a few months before the election that he planned to hire once he won.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our debate, we had one big televised debate. We had a few others, but there was one big televised debate. I passed him in the hall, uhm, right before the debate. And he was singing that song, uhm, Black Eyed Peas, I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As he looked back at me, and, and I will, I will, uhm, I have been told I killed it in the debate. And that was where a lot of people first started to take notice. Like, who is she? And uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think, I think it may, may have caught him by surprise just a little bit, but still, like all the way up until about two weeks before it was like, he's got it. And then some of the polls started to shift and some of the local news, they were like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This can't be right. These polls can't be right because you can't see a big turnaround. I ended up winning the primary election going from that 20%


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 5 months before to actually beating him by a 22% margin on election day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It allowed you to win, essentially, or what was the thing that, you know, that happened and it was, it was, there was none. It was literally, uhm, I think the difference between someone who felt they were entitled to the position because of a number of reasons and, and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Me recognizing what the position really is, it's a position of trust and responsibility that is, is granted to you by the voters in the state and they are the ones who I'm accountable to and who I work for.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, um, it was just, it was, it was, uh, it was a,


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[Assistant] Our local kind of Walter Cronkite anchor of our news station who's been doing it forever, longer than I've, probably for about 30 or 40 years, he's still on TV now. He's a Vietnam veteran.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uh, that election night, he was reporting the results and he actually started to get choked up and got a little, got a little tearful. Uhm, because he understood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why I was running, bringing that experience of service and having been deployed and the significance of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That I was going to Congress not for myself, but that I was bringing my brothers and sisters in uniform with me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and, and, um, it was, it was a heavy night. I mean, it was, you know, there were parties and things going on, but, um, I remember leaving the hall that night on election night.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And my sister was walking out with me and she's like, Tulsi, you know, you're, you're allowed to celebrate, you know, you're allowed to be happy about this. But I was just, I was immediately like, okay, all right, these are the results.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The focus that I, that I carried with me throughout is, you know, I'm not entitled to anything, and I am here only because the people in my community, in my home state,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Have trusted me to work for them and to be their voice and to represent them to the best of my ability.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I didn't, I didn't fully understand why, but yeah, it was there. I mean, I had, you know, she, uh, I was actually making up drill time with the national guard after that primary election.


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[Assistant] And she called my cell phone and left a message and, um, introduced herself and just said, Hey, you know, we have a democratic convention coming up in a few weeks. Um, I would love to have you come and be one of the featured speakers during prime time as, um, uh, and speak about veterans.


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[Assistant] Um, let me know if you're interested. And so, uh, again, like that's not an opportunity that one gets when you've just been elected to Congress to go and speak to, I don't know, 50,000 people in an arena in the whole country. Yeah, it's the whole, it's everybody. Yeah. And, uh, and so, you know, I mean, I was,


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[Assistant] It kind of, yeah, and then, you know, shortly after getting sworn in as a member of Congress, I was asked, Hey, will you be vice chair of the DNC? And like, what, what does a vice chair do?


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[Assistant] You know, be able to say, hey, you know, there are, I mean, there, there are biographical boxes that I checked a lot of boxes for, you know, the, the diversity, uh, pick the diversity higher. And, and, you know, for me, I'm, I'm, you know, just coming into each of these experiences completely clear eyed and not getting googly eyed at all. Like, oh my God.


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[Assistant] What are you, what are you trying to use me for even? Uh, what, what do you get out of this? And then for me thinking, okay, like weighing pros and cons and saying, is this an opportunity that I can use to try to get some, some good done?


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[Assistant] Uh, and if it is, then okay, that makes sense. Like maybe there's a mutually beneficial thing here. And if there's not, then, you know, no thanks. Um, but yeah, that's, that's, that's where, that's where things started.


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[Assistant] It was my first year in Congress in summer of 2013.


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[Assistant] Uhm, every year in Congress, and I, I don't know, I think this may date back to pre-air conditioning days, but every year in August, Congress goes into recess. It's the hottest year of the month. It's, you know, DC is a literal actual, like, geographical swamp.


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[Assistant] Uhm, I was filling up gas in my car one day. So I started to get a lot of calls from constituents, from people about this. And this is where this is very quickly developing. I don't have all the facts or information or intelligence or anything at that point.


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[Assistant] You know, Iraq and just every, everything that had led to that kind of cynicism and fatigue or, okay, we want to go start another war in another country. Like what, what did they do to us?


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[Assistant] And so the recess time was cut short. I was on the Foreign Affairs Committee at that time. And I was throughout most of the time I was in Congress, uh, and so we got called back to DC early so that we could go through and get the intelligence briefings and actually


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[Assistant] Get, gather the information and then that was when I first started to take kind of a deep dive into what was happening in Syria and why he was proposing this and, um, ultimately after


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[Assistant] Going into the issue and the question, and, and really, he was not going to come to Congress at first, but then, uh, enough members of Congress said you can't, like the Constitution does not allow you to unilaterally just start a war. You have to come and get congressional approval for that.


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[Assistant] Um, and so that's what we went back and started to prepare for that, that vote that would happen. And I just, I came to the conclusion after studying the facts that it would be a counterproductive military action.


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[Assistant] And much of it came from, and we had hearings with secretary, then secretary of state Kerry and others at the time.


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[Assistant] Who were trying to tell Congress like, well, you know, this is not going to be a pinprick strike, but it's not going to be a decapitation. It's going to be a punch in the gut. And you know, some of my followup questions were like, okay, so you're going to go and deliver a punch in the gut attack. How will they respond?


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[Assistant] Oh, you know, we don't really know, but we don't think it'll be a big deal. Okay? Who are their friends?


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[Assistant] Who are they going to call for help and how may they respond? How could this potentially escalate into something that is no longer a punch in the gut, but something that first, second, third, fourth order of effects


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[Assistant] I'm not going to cut your head off, I'm just going to punch you in the gut and think that you're not going to do anything in response. And I just saw so many of the similarities of a lack of foresight and


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[Assistant] strategic planning and for me again as military officer, basic level, like military decision making process and actually thinking through these things.


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[Assistant] And I saw a similarity like this could very easily become another kind of Iraq kind of situation where you start making these decisions and then they're on the fly and then you're not realizing or thinking through what do we do tomorrow and then the next day and, and where do we go from here?


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[Assistant] Expressing my opposition to the president, president Obama's proposal, published it and was the first Democrat to do so, to express opposition to his proposal and very quickly got a call from the White House.


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[Assistant] Basically saying how dare you. Who in the White House?


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[Assistant] It was the, uh, the first lady's chief of staff. And I, I, I still to this day scratch my head about why they asked her. I knew her and maybe that was just simply the reason why.


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[Assistant] But, I would think that on a matter like this, you would wanna have, I don't know, maybe a national security director, secretary, like I don't know, somebody. But that was, that was essentially the message is how dare you.


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[Assistant] Not only as a democrat, but because like you're from the president's home state. How could you, how could you so publicly disagree with him on something?


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[Assistant] But the thing was Jaco is, is nowhere in that conversation was the substance of the issue.


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[Assistant] I chose to take that public course of action because I had just gone through


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[Assistant] Days of internal discussions, Q&A, expressions of concern, uhm, and essentially expressed all of those same points of opposition internally to members of the administration.


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[Assistant] And saw that nothing was, nothing was breaking through and that the answers that they were delivering were pretty.


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[Assistant] That there was not really an interest of a discussion or a response like of introspection saying hey maybe we're missing something here or maybe we're not communicating clearly or you know, it was just like this is it, this is what we're doing.


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[Assistant] And the why? Like, why? What are you trying to accomplish? Well, we need to send a message.


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[Assistant] And then what? Like you can, like, communication's a two-way street. I can send you a message, but if, if I want that message to be effective, like, I need to anticipate how you might respond. And so there was, I, I chose the course of action that, that I chose purely because I felt I had exhausted, uhm,


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[Assistant] Internal or maybe kind of back channel means of addressing those concerns.


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[Assistant] Yeah, so I mean, this, this, in this specific situation, it was not, so there were other Democrats who, who shared these concerns and Republicans who shared these concerns, um, and that were raising these questions within the hearings, both, both public and, and closed, um, hearings.


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[Assistant] So it wasn't like, hey, we expect everybody to, like, there was not a pressure coming from the democratic leadership in this example saying, hey, we expect you to toe the line on this and just support this because it's President Obama. So this was not that kind of situation. There are other examples of that. Uhm, but.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it, it just, it, it was clear, it was clear that the message that was coming from the administration was, was really, um, it was kind of a one way communication. And, and so I knew enough to know that when, when they're, they're kind of locked and loaded in, in their position.


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[Assistant] The only thing that may cause them to change or to budge is public pressure.


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[Assistant] And that's ultimately what happened. It, it, the public pressure was bipartisan and, and reached such a volume that they never even brought the vote to Congress because they knew it would be an abject failure. And, and the, the, the military action never happened.


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[Assistant] And Obama got criticized for that because I don't know if you remember, but he, this was like, this was a red line, right? Like, okay. And he got vastly criticized by Republicans and I think some Democrats, like how, how dare you not enforce your own red line.


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[Assistant] Because of all the reasons that I felt it was the wrong decision to, to, to make in the first place, but also it forced him to take a diplomatic path to resolve the issue that he was trying to address. Uhm, which is, you know, hey, like maybe that should have been your first, first primary course of action.


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[Assistant] I would say this is especially true in politics, but I think it's probably applicable across the board is if you know.


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[Assistant] What you are trying to accomplish. Ultimately, what's the greater goal?


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[Assistant] And your goal is not about self preservation. If your goal is not selfishly motivated, but instead, um, you know, how, how can I serve this, this greater purpose that you're obviously there to do, then, um, you're able to more


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[Assistant] Unemotionally and clearly assess, okay here I've got three different options here. Here's where this one leads, here's where that one leads, here's where that one leads. And assess, okay, you know, what, what


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[Assistant] Really, ultimately, what is going to help me get, help get me closer to that thing that I'm trying to accomplish? And uhm, yeaah, I've gone through many, many iterations of this as I've made different decisions that had very serious political consequences and that


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[Assistant] Uhm, especially the big ones were, were very often the unpopular decision that people would kind of scratch their head like, what, what is wrong with her?


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[Assistant] She's, she's, she's going and doing things that nobody does. She's going and saying things that nobody will say.


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[Assistant] Is she crazy or just stupid or what? Uhm, but if you take a step back, you know, really,


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[Assistant] Who am I accountable to? And what is my purpose? If my purpose is to be a part of the


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[Assistant] Uhm, to seek the approval of, of the elite in Washington, then I would have made completely different decisions, completely, from the, from the get-go, uh, and I would have done very different things.


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[Assistant] But if my accountability is to, and it is, and has been to the people who elected me to serve, if my accountability is to our brothers and sisters in uniform, both of those who continue to serve, those who have laid down the uniform, and those who have paid the ultimate price,


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[Assistant] Then I'm making my decisions through a different lens and a different context than folks are used to in Washington.


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[Assistant] And it's not to say like, hey, I'm just going gangbusters and I'm going to go run through a fricking brick wall, no matter what the consequence. And it is being clear-eyed about, okay, here are the potential ramifications to this. And sometimes they are known and sometimes they are an unknown factor, but ultimately


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[Assistant] These major decision points that I have come across.


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[Assistant] Do the right thing. If you don't, if you don't know and you're not sure and all of these are like ultimately, do the right thing because it's the right thing and even, even as you may get, you know, uhm,


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[Assistant] The, you know, the political fire or the negative consequences or these other things, like ultimately whether it takes a little time or it takes a long time, doing the right thing is always the right thing. And I'm, you know, I'm, I'm


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[Assistant] Able to know that wherever my path goes, I've done my best to make that best decision when faced with hard right, easy wrong.


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[Assistant] Yeah, that's exactly right. And in order to do that, it's being able to have not lost


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[Assistant] Your foundation and your groundedness so that you have the ability to be introspective and to know


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[Assistant] What actually matters versus the things that, that, that don't really matter, which help you determine, you know, which battles am I going to pick to fight? And also, um, what, what, what is winning? How do you define winning?


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[Assistant] Is it, is it a specific title? Or is it a specific position? Or uhm, when you say do the right things for the right reasons and at some point in time, sooner or later, you're gonna win.


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[Assistant] For me, in my case, that, that's, that is 100% true.


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[Assistant] I think what, uhm, maybe is not obvious to people is winning is not becoming president of the United States. Winning is not becoming a United States senator or a member of Congress or an ambassador or whatever. Pick the job.


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[Assistant] You have a different perspective than most people in Washington who live their lives from college to try to strategically plan their lives to get these jobs.


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[Assistant] And their entire identity is wrapped around that whether they have it or it is their ambition to achieve that position or title that they forget that the real goal is being in a position of impact and influence where you can serve and make that positive impact.


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[Assistant] And that's where for me, even from when I ran for state house through the different political positions that I've had, like I had no issue and no qualms about walking away from.


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[Assistant] What was beginning, what was the beginning of some would say would be an illustrious political career as, as a 21 year old elected to the state house. When it came for that decision point, are you going to stay or are you going to go? I went because


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[Assistant] I wasn't losing anything, and like people are like, oh you're gonna give up this political career, you've only just begun. I'm not giving up anything. I am only choosing.


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[Assistant] At this point, to serve in a different way. And I think that's where we look at


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[Assistant] When I've thought about, okay, well, you know, winning, winning is being in that position of impact and influence and, and maybe at some point it does take that form of


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[Assistant] Yeaah, I would say yeaah. I mean the power of


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[Assistant] The political infrastructure and the party system and how much money, uh, in, you know, there are limits. Like if I'm, well, not if, when I ran for president, ran for Congress, there are limits. Like if you wanted to make a political contribution to me, you know, the limit changes every election, but let's say it's $2,000. That's all you can give.


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[Assistant] So if you wanted to write a two million dollar check, you could do that. No problem. And so if you look at the, the, the balance of power that gives the political parties a heck of a lot of power to, to leverage, um, over


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[Assistant] A specific candidate or specific incumbent and to use as, use in the power plays that are used. So that, that was something that, that uhm, I came into and I think was, was unexpected.


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[Assistant] Votes are happening or about to happen. It's like, Hey, where is this member of Congress? I heard he or she is thinking of voting with Republicans. We need to find them and talk to them and, uh, get them in line.


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[Assistant] And there are actual jobs. Have you seen House of Cards? No. Yeah, you're fine. Don't worry about it. But it's featured in this show, House of Cards, the main character, he kind of starts out, he's a member of Congress, and he is the whip.


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[Assistant] It takes different, sometimes it can be very direct like that. So this is something that I have not personally directly been the target of.


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[Assistant] Partially because I, I got elected without any help from the democratic party locally or nationally.


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[Assistant] Uhm, there, there was no fundraising help, there was no, hey we're gonna push, you know, it was a primary election and generally they don't get involved in primary elections. It's not, it's not a rule that's always followed, but in my case, it was.


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[Assistant] And because it's such a strong democratic state, generally they'll use their resources to help Democrats get elected or reelected in swing districts or Republican districts. If they're like, uh, Tulsi, you're good. Like we don't gotta worry about you.


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[Assistant] In my case, then that also means there's no leverage from them. Uh, but I have friends who I've served with who are in those positions where, you know, a reelection in a congressional race, like they've got to raise 10 million, 20 million bucks, which is.


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[Assistant] You know, in my race, I think I raised, I raised about, I don't know, a little over a million dollars. Uhm, so for them, there is a lot of leverage and it's used. It's certainly used, uh, to, to try to get


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[Assistant] You as a member of Congress to do what is best for the party rather than what you believe is the right thing to do based on your conscience and based on how you feel you can best serve your district.


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[Assistant] That's one approach and the other approach is people who are interested in climbing the, the ladder. And so you will either have a cherry opportunity placed before you or maybe you won't. Got it. Have that opportunity presented or it'll be taken away.


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[Assistant] So you know, it's kind of like, you know, they'll look at, okay, what does this person want? And what do they need? And how can we use that as a motivator to try to get them to do


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[Assistant] How do we work together and actually solve problems and pass meaningful legislation? And I, you know, again, early on, you know, there were, there were some Republicans, uhm, Obamacare, right?


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[Assistant] There was a hugely divisive issue politically that's been weaponized by both sides, the issue of healthcare. And there were some republics, we found like, hey, here are some easy fixes. This was, this was, uh, I was elected in 2012, Obamacare was passed in 2010.


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[Assistant] And so I, you know, there were some Democrats and Republicans. We started to say, Hey, let's, let's figure out what we can do together.


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[Assistant] This is, we're here in Congress, this is why we are here, and there were some easy, uhm,


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[Assistant] Uh, kind of very simple common sense corrections that we could make, uh, through legislation to this bill.


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[Assistant] On the democratic side, because it would require that they would have to admit that the bill had some flaws that needed fixing.


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[Assistant] And on the Republican side opposed to it because if you fix Obamacare, then what do you run against? What do you criticize the other side for if you actually fix it in a way that it, it helps?


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[Assistant] And if people start to like it, then you can't raise money off of it and you can't weaponize it for political purposes.


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[Assistant] Progressively escalated and gotten far worse, far divisive to the point where as we sit here today, you have the speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi, referring to Republicans as quote unquote, the enemy within.


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[Assistant] The enemy within, and the implications of that, like the actual legitimate implications of that were as, when you make that statement,


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[Assistant] That you do not trust people from the opposing party broadly. She's not saying, Hey, this one person I feel is a threat to our security and needs to be reported to law enforcement. That's a different story. If that, if that were the case, we have systems within our government to do that. If you think a member of Congress poses a security threat to their colleagues, report it to law enforcement. Do it.


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[Assistant] Uh, and other Democrats saying, well, I don't feel safe around my Republican colleagues. What you're saying is that if any member and any Democrat goes and tries to have a conversation with or reach out to or work with a Republican.


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[Assistant] Where does that then lead and how is there any possibility of


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[Assistant] Healing and unifying and reaching out to get past the inflammatory divisive state that we're in.


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[Assistant] Um, yeah, and that was one of those, that was one of those big decision points that I had, um, where I couldn't, I couldn't map out what the actual consequences to that decision would be.


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[Assistant] I didn't, I didn't know. Uhm, I had different political advisors and people who


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[Assistant] So just know that before you make this decision. And just to back up a little bit why the backstory that led to my making that decision was I was still vice chair of the DNC at that point.


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[Assistant] And as an officer of the DNC, the rules say you have to be neutral in a primary election, that the DNC's role is to make sure that the primary election process is, um, executed in a fair, in a fair way so that voters have the opportunity to make their decisions.


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[Assistant] On who they would like to be the democratic nominee to become the president of the United States. And so that was my, like, okay, I'm going to make sure that I fulfill that responsibility and make sure that our democratic process works in, uh, in this primary. And I had, I had no plans to get involved in the race at all.


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[Assistant] And there were, you know, there were a number of, you know, this wasn't the reason why I ultimately made the decision, but there were a number of issues that started to


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[Assistant] Um, present themselves in seeing that the chair of the DNC at that time was making unilateral decisions about how the primary process would work.


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[Assistant] Made it very clear that it would not be fair or neutral and that those, the process decisions that were being made would favor Hillary Clinton over any other candidate.


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[Assistant] And I and other officers of the DNC, uhm, expressed privately and then.


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[Assistant] Our concerns and opposition. A to the fact that like, hey, like we're officers of the DNC. You're asking us to attach our names to a decision that you as the chair made, but we had absolutely no discussion or input to it whatsoever. And I'm not comfortable doing that.


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[Assistant] And then when seeing there was no, it was kind of like, okay, no, like I don't care. I don't care. The decision's been made and that's it. And then airing some of those concerns publicly for the purpose of trying to bring some accountability and transparency to the process. And just two, just two, two examples. One was, um,


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[Assistant] And to me, that was ridiculous. Like there had never been so few debates, um, ever. And why, why that number of debates mattered was because of the second decision that was made, which was if any candidate participated in a non-DNC sanctioned debate or forum,


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[Assistant] They would be banned from participating in any future DNC debate. So you'd be punished for actually seeking out opportunities to talk to voters. Uhm, both of those decisions seem pretty undemocratic to me while we're standing here saying, hey, we want, we want


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[Assistant] High voter turnout. We want people to engage in the process. We want people to engage with the candidates. But...


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[Assistant] We're only going to allow six debates and if they do any debate or forum that's not one of our six, then they won't be able to come and play with us at all.


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[Assistant] Each of, you know, I mean, obviously Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were kind of the two primary candidates, but there were a few others, uh, who were still running at that time. Martin O'Malley was one, he was the governor of Maryland and, and, um,


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[Assistant] So, so that, that was kind of already happening, but ultimately as, as this process, um, started to, to begin, I saw how, even in these limited debate settings, how little attention was being focused by the democratic party as well as their, their corporate media partners.


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[Assistant] On foreign policy and on the, the qualifications.


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[Assistant] That voters may look for in a commander in chief. And what that responsibility meant. Uhm, it was just not, it was, you know, they were talking about a bunch of other things. Most, most things that to me, like superficial political drama and theater, like not issues that really mattered a whole lot.


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[Assistant] When you look at the implications on people's everyday lives, but as a soldier, obviously for me, like, this is the most, well, it's not just as a soldier. The most important responsibility that any president has is to serve as commander in chief.


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[Assistant] You know, our constitution very clearly, like, I can have all the economic positions I want and positions on education and positions on healthcare. As president, I can't do anything.


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[Assistant] Of, of great impact without working with Congress. And that's, I mean that's the, it's the check and balance that our, our founders had in mind for us, which is a good thing. But there's only one commander in chief.


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[Assistant] And it ultimately drove me to resign as vice chair of the DNC and, and endorse Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton.


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[Assistant] Because I saw a huge, um, gap and difference, contrast between the two of them and in Hillary Clinton's


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[Assistant] Uh, very interventionist, kind of war hawk.


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[Assistant] to, to resign as vice chair of the DNC and endorse Bernie Sanders so that I would have a platform to start to push, to be a voice to push this question and to challenge the media and to bring to voters


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[Assistant] Sunday show meet the press, uh, there in Washington, went to the studio, um, didn't tell them really what I was there to announce. It was, you know, I, I intentionally kept this to myself very, very close hold.


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[Assistant] Knowing how incestuous the relationships are between politicians and the media and attempts to try to undermine my ability to deliver my message for myself.


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[Assistant] And, uh, so there are probably like two people in my life who knew what I was going to do.


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[Assistant] I went live television Sunday morning, shared my decision and why.


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[Assistant] I had some democrats who, who had, uhm, uh, like endorsed Obama over Hillary in 2008, early, like from the beginning, and who shared like, hey, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I made that decision and I was on the Clinton shit list for years before I was able to dig myself out of it. And Tulsi, don't you know that she's gonna win?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you're gonna be on the list and that there is a list and what that means in a practical way is you don't get your bill signed into law. You don't get funding for the things that you need or that your constituents need in your district and that your efforts


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[Assistant] The reason why you are here and the efforts that you are putting forward will be blocked. And so you're rendering yourself ineffective because she will be president.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thought to be, I dunno, part of whatever she's doing, like I dunno, like there's all these different things.


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[Assistant] Kudos to you for standing up for your principles and what you believe in and listening to both your heart, but also recognizing where people in the country are rather than listening to the echo chamber within Washington. And yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Can be traced back to that original sin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And just how, how deep, you know, yeah, there, there, there were certainly ramifications, but also, um, it was, I mean, I had the opportunity to, to raise the issues that I ran for Congress to raise and to bring them to the forefront and to get conversations starting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] About, you know, the issues of war and peace and, and when do, when is it right to send our troops into battle and, and, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And recognize, like, I'm not a pacifist, I'm not a peacenik, I...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I care and have dedicated my adult life to that, that service, to protecting our national security, the safety of the American people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But also knowing that sometimes the tougher decision to make is to not go to war.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The harder decision may be recognizing that even as there may be a problem that, that we want to solve in the world,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But sometimes it requires more strength and courage to recognize A. It's a problem we can't solve. B.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Trying to do so would not serve our national security interests or the interests of, of the American people and therefore recognizing that the right answer may be to, to not do anything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I could not, I could not, I was not okay with sitting on the sidelines and watch this. Every presidential election is important. There's not a single one. Every, every election like this is the most important election of our lifetimes. Every single one is important.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I could not live with myself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If I had chosen to sit on the sidelines and let this whole thing play out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Without doing my very best to insert these most important questions and issues and contrasting of records into the dialogue and conversation so that voters would have the ability to make the best informed decision possible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The event that ultimately led to my making that decision was the, uh, happened in January of 2018.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it was, I'm sure you remember this echo, but it was, um, when on a Saturday morning, we got a text alert sent out to every cell phone in the state, civil defense alarms sounding saying,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Missile incoming to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The aftermath of that, where immediately we're thinking,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That not only could reach Hawaii, but could reach a significant portion of the mainland at that time in 2018. Now they have continued to develop that and they can reach anywhere in the country.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] North Korea is sending, uh, you know, a nuclear missile to us, which means we have 15 minutes, uh, to live.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All of my loved ones, my family, everyone, uh, is in Hawaii and-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which, am I gonna drive to town or drive to Waianae? Which of my kids am I gonna try to get to to spend those last minutes of my life with?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mother's going in the bathtub, like seek shelter, seek immediate shelter. Everyone's like, where do I go? Friend of mine, he's got like a ton of kids. I don't know, six or seven kids. He just started driving to the mountains. Like I just got to go find a cave somewhere. And, but, but there was no shelter. There's no shelter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so you got this fancy alert system and like, okay, it's blasting out, seek immediate shelter. There is, there is no shelter. Um, what, what ended up happening in those minutes that followed for me, as soon as I got that notification on my phone, uh, I'm in DC. I like it's a holy shit.