Tulsi Gabbard Blames U.S. Policy of Regime Change for N. Korea’s Nuke Threat

STEPHANOPOULOS: North Korea Kim Jong-un says he’s not going to give up his nuclear arsenal. Perhaps they could lead to (ph) talks of some kind of a freeze. But given that, do you think that we need to bolster the defenses of Hawaii?

GABBARD: We absolutely need to bolster our — our ballistic missile defense system specifically for Hawaii and for this country. That’s something on the Armed Services Committee that I have been and continue to work on doing. But I think it’s also important, as we talk about how important it is that Trump directly negotiates with North Korea, we’ve got to understand why Kim Jong-un is saying he’s not going to give up his nuclear weapons.

Our country’s history of regime change war has led countries like North Korea to develop and hold onto these nuclear weapons because they see it as their only deterrent against regime change. And this is what’s important for President Trump to recognize. It is critical that we end our policy, the regime change wars, to provide that credible guarantee that the United States is not going to go in and topple the North Korean regime so that these conversations can begin toward denuclearization.

STEPHANOPOULOS: To be clear, you’re saying that Kim Jong-un’s nuclear arsenal is our fault?

GABBARD: What I’m saying is that Democrat and Republican administrations for decades, going back over 20 years, failed to recognize the seriousness of this threat, failed to remove it. And we know that North Korea has these nuclear weapons because they see how the United States, in Libya for example, guaranteed Gaddafi, we’re not going to go after you, should get rid of your nuclear weapons.

He did, then we went and led an attack that toppled Gaddafi, launching Libya into chaos that we are still seeing the results of today. North Korea sees what we did in Iraq, Saddam Hussein with those (ph) false reports of weapons of mass destruction and now seeing in Iran how President Trump is decertifying a nuclear deal that prevented Iran from developing their nuclear weapons, threatening the very existence and (ph) the agreement that was made.

So yes, we’ve got to understand North Korea is holding on to these nuclear weapons because they think it is their only protection from the United States coming in and doing to them what the United States has done to so many countries.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Was it a mistake for the United States to take out Gaddafi and Hussein?

GABBARD: It was, absolutely.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Tulsi Gabbard, thanks for the time this morning.