Hindu-American Tulsi Gabbard inks content deal with X to 'defend free speech'

New York: Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu member of the US Congress and a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, announced she has inked a deal with Elon Musk to host a show on X to "defend free speech".

The social media company is bringing three new shows, featuring Gabbard, former CNN anchor Don Lemon, and sports radio host and former ESPN star Jim Rome.

The former Hawaii Representative said she will be sharing stories of those whose "voices have been silenced", and people in power don't want them to be heard.

"Freedom of speech is a fundamental right in America. Sadly we live in a time where debate, dialogue and dissent can be cause for cancellation and censorship by those in power. To defend free speech, we must use it," Gabbard wrote in a post shared on X on Tuesday.

The 42-year-old said that her new partnership with X will ensure that free speech is not only protected but also celebrated.

"We will be bringing you stories & news about the truth of what’s happening in our country and world but that those in power don’t what you hear, and a series of short films that share the stories of those most impacted, but whose voices are silenced," she said.

On October 11, 2022, Gabbard announced on Twitter that she was leaving the Democratic Party, denouncing it as an "elitist cabal of war mongers". She accused the party's leadership of "cowardly wokeness, anti-white racism, (being) hostile to people of faith and spirituality, and dragging us closer to nuclear war".

Following her departure from the party, Gabbard said at a town hall event that she is "pretty confident" that both President Joe Biden and German dictator Adolf Hitler share a "mentality" of good intentions to be authoritarian.

A military veteran, who served in the Iraq war between 2004 and 2005 for the Hawaii Army National Guard before she entered Congress, Gabbard has long been critical of US intervention overseas and has also blamed Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Biden's failed foreign policy.