President Donald Trump's reelection campaign is preparing Russian "favorite" Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii) to run as a third-party candidate, Hillary Clinton said in an interview with the "Campaign HQ" podcast.
"I'm not making any predictions but I think they've got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate," Clinton told podcast host David Plouffe. "She's the favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far."
Clinton argued the Trump campaign will turn to Gabbard if 2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, whom Clinton also associated with Russia, does not run.
"That's assuming Jill Stein will give it up which she might not, because she's also a Russian asset," Clinton said. "She's a Russian asset, I mean totally."
Plouffe had asked Clinton what she thought the Trump campaign's strategy may be. She said its strategy would consist of two parts: dark-web videos and the propping up of a third-party candidate.
The former secretary of state attributed her loss in part to voters seeing "flashing videos" of her on the "dark web" doing "horrible things."
"I think it's going to be the same as 2016," Clinton said. "Don't vote for the other guy. You don't like me. Don't vote for the other guy, because the other guy is going to do X, Y, and Z. Or the other guy did such terrible things. I'm going to show you in these flashing videos that appear and then disappear and they're on the dark web and nobody can find them, but you're going to see them and you're going to see that person doing these horrible things."
Gabbard has been attacked for her apparent defense of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and for receiving a disproportionate amount of coverage on Russian news outlet RT despite being a low-tier candidate, according to the New York Times.