Tulsi Gabbard, a former U.S. representative from Hawaii and 2020 presidential candidate, called on Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, to resign from Congress after he tweeted on Sunday that Gabbard’s recent claims about alleged U.S.-sponsored biolabs in Ukraine amounted to “treasonous lies.”

The flap appears to have started early Sunday when Gabbard posted to her verified Twitter account a video in which she claimed there are 25 to 30 U.S.-funded biolabs in Ukraine that conduct research on deadly pathogens.

“Like COVID, these pathogens know no borders so if they are inadvertently or purposely breached or compromised, they will quickly spread all throughout Europe, the United States, and the rest of the world causing untold suffering and death,” Gabbard says in the video.

Later, Gabbard said that “instead of trying to cover this up, the Biden-Harris Administration needs to work with Russia, Ukraine, NATO, the U.N. to immediately implement a ceasefire for all military action in the vicinity of these labs until they’re secured and these pathogens are destroyed.”

According to fact-checker Politifact, these claims are false; there are no U.S.-funded biolabs in Ukraine.

The U.S. does sponsor the U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which was established to decommission Cold War-era biological weapons. It also funds the Biological Threat Reduction Program under CTPR, which partnered with Ukraine in 2005 to research safe biological detection and diagnostic capabilities, as well as ways to reduce the threats posed by pathogens. 

"The U.S. Department of Defense’s Biological Threat Reduction Program collaborates with partner countries to counter the threat of outbreaks (deliberate, accidental, or natural) of the world’s most dangerous infectious diseases," according to the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine's website. "The program accomplishes its bio-threat reduction mission through development of a bio-risk management culture; international research partnerships; and partner capacity for enhanced bio-security, bio-safety, and bio-surveillance measures."

However, since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia has characterized these laboratory facilities as centers for chemical and biological weapons development.

Gabbard also invoked claims that COVID-19 originated in a so-called biolab in Wuhan and called for the closure of what she identified as 300 U.S.-funded biolabs around the world.

Gabbard’s statements alarmed officials in the United States and abroad who said they appear to amplify Russian misinformation used to justify Russian’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

While early Russian efforts to blame the war on Ukraine's aggression were preemptively discredited by the Biden administration’s sharing of information that Russia sought to plant false flags about Ukrainian military action against Russian-backed separatists, the biolab narrative has gained increasing traction on Russian-backed and U.S. ultra-right media. It has also found receptive ears in conspiracy groups that believe COVID-19 was the result of a biological weapons experiment. 

Gabbard did not claim that the labs were used to produce biological weapons, only that they dealt in research with dangerous pathogens.

As Gabbard’s video spread — by Monday afternoon, it had been retweeted more than 14,000 times — Romney went on Twitter to condemn the remarks. 

“Tulsi Gabbard is parroting false Russian propaganda,” he tweeted. “Her treasonous lies may well cost lives.”

In a series of Twitter posts on Monday, Gabbard cited multiple sources, including undersecretary of state Victoria Nuland, a March 11, 2022, Pentagon fact sheet, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine and an unnamed Pentagon official cited in a CBS “Face the Nation” segment to verify her claim that the U.S. supports biolabs in Ukraine. Again, these sources appeared only to verify the existence of the already publicly acknowledged BTRP labs.

At the end of a string of 12 tweets directed at Romney, Gabbard concluded, “So, Senator Romney, you have a choice: out of pride, continue to deny the truth or admit you are wrong, apologize, resign.”

She followed with another tweet nine hours later: @MittRomney and others say that I’m treasonous because I called for a ceasefire around the 25+ biolabs in Ukraine to prevent the breach of such facilities & escape of pathogens, and prevent more pandemics. Romney should resign.”

In response to Spectrum News Hawaii's request to Gabbard for comment, Gabbard's communications director forwarded a copy of Gabbard's most recent Twitter post.

Hawaii's congressional delegation did not respond to requests for comment.

Romney was not the only Republican to slam Gabbard's false claims: Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger called her rhetoric "treasonous" and "actual Russian propaganda."

"Actual Russian propaganda. Traitorous," Kinzinger wrote on Twitter. "Russia also said the Luger center in Georgia was making zombies. Tulsi should go to Russia."

Gabbard has been an enigmatic political figure since becoming the youngest person ever elected to office in Hawaii, joining the state House of Representatives in 2002 at the age of 21. Hailing from a prominent conservative Republican family — her father Mike is a state senator — Gabbard has spent her political career as a Democrat, but just nominally so, according to her detractors. 

Gabbard’s estrangement from party leaders came to a head in 2019 when Hillary Clinton repeatedly criticized Gabbard, then a rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, for her ties to Russia and insinuated that she was being groomed by Russia to act as a third-party spoiler. Other Democrats have criticized Gabbard for her support of authoritarian figures like India’s Narendra Modi and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.

Since leaving office, Gabbard has engaged her former Democratic colleagues only in frequent Twitter critiques. Last week, she said Vice Pres. Kamala Harris’ “disastrous” trip to Poland revealed how unfit she would be to assume the office of president.

“This is the danger of choosing/appointing leaders based upon their gender/race and their loyalty to the Washington elite,” she tweeted.

In rhetoric, cause and association, Gabbard has appeared more in step with far-right Republicans of late.

Her Twitter timeline is filled with video snippets of her many appearances on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and her controversial address at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference.

On International Women’s Day, she opined that the most important thing to appreciate “is that there is such a thing as women that are biologically different from men. It’s not politically correct or woke to point this out, but unless we accept it, it’s not possible to celebrate.”

In the lead-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Gabbard was outspoken in her desire to avert hostilities but also encouraged the U.S., Ukraine and NATO to pledge that Ukraine would never join NATO — another position that appeared to support of Russian interests.

Accusations of Russian influence, which have dogged Gabbard for years, flared again this week with new reports of political contributions from outspoken Vladimir Putin supporter Sharon Tennison and Elena Branson, a dual Russian-American citizen accused of engaging in lobbying activity on behalf of the Kremlin without registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Branson’s contribution to Gabbard was nominal — just $49.94 — but drew attention because it was her lone donation to a politician.