Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii (D-no chance of being the Democrat nominee) got her moment in the spotlight via a CNN townhall last night. However, the congresswoman proved exactly why she is a C-list candidate.

If you remember, Tulsi Gabbard actually met with Bashar al-Assad during her 2017 trip to Lebanon and Syria and managed to upset both sides of the aisle by not telling Democrat leadership she was going on this trip, and then by being an apologist for Assad when she got back.

Naturally, this came up during her CNN townhall. And she still can’t commit to saying that Assad is a bad guy and a war criminal.

Gabbard met with Assad in Syria two years ago, saying at the time that she “felt that it’s important that if we profess to truly care about the Syrian people, about their suffering, then we’ve got to be able to meet with anyone that we need to if there is a possibility that we can achieve peace.”

Gabbard also said last month that Assad is “not the enemy of the United States because Syria does not pose a direct threat to the United States.”

When moderator Dana Bash asked if Gabbard is unsure whether Assad is a war criminal now, she said: “Everything that I have said requires that we take action based on evidence. (If) the evidence is there, there should be accountability.”

Gabbard cited her experience serving in Iraq as informing her approach to Syria.”

“I served in a war in Iraq, a war that was launched based on lies, and a war that was launched without evidence,” she said. “And so the American people were duped.”

“So as a soldier, as an American, as a member of Congress, it is my duty and my responsibility to exercise skepticism any time anyone tries to send our service members into harm’s way or use our military to go in and start a new war,” she added.”

Remember that it is assumed by the international community that Assad used chemical weapons on his own people. And Gabbard can’t bring herself to call her buddy Assad a “war criminal.”

.@TulsiGabbard still won't say Assad is a war criminal. "I think that the evidence needs to be gathered" and if there's evidence he should be prosecuted. Total disgrace. Here's the evidence. It's overwhelming: https://t.co/8fd8YsSjfh @CNN

— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) March 11, 2019

Dear @TulsiGabbard, if you still aren't convinced Assad is a war criminal, please meet @omarAlshogre, a child tortured in Assad's prisons for three years. https://t.co/ALVyXFIL5w

— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) March 11, 2019

She can’t bring herself to criticize Ilhan Omar either. What a shock.

Tulsi Gabbard, like so many lower-tier Democrat presidential candidates, knows she has no shot at getting the party’s nomination. She’s hoping to raise her own profile in her home state and on the national stage for a Cabinet seat or a run at a higher office. Let’s see how far her Assad apologetics take her, because she barely registers at the polls now, and I don’t think equivocating on someone even the Democrats would prefer to fall off the face of the earth is going to be a sound campaign strategy.

Featured image: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) on her CNN town hall, March 10, 2019 (screenshot via YouTube)