Washington, Oct 11 (IANS): Former Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard announced she is leaving the Democratic Party, denouncing it as an "elitist cabal of war mongers," while calling upon other "common sense independent-minded Democrats" to exit with her, media reports said.

"I can no longer remain in today's Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racialising every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are hostile to people of faith & spirituality, demonise the police & protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponise the national security state to go after political opponents, and above all, dragging us ever closer to nuclear war," Gabbard said, ABC News reported.

Gabbard represented Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District from 2013 to 2021 as a Democrat, and in 2020 she mounted an unsuccessful bid for the party's presidential nomination.

In in a video posted to Twitter on Tuesday, she claimed that the party she's exiting stands for the "powerful elite," not the people, ABC News reported.

"If you can no longer stomach the direction that the so called woke Democratic Party ideologues are taking our country. I invite you to join me," she said.

Chief among the reasons her 20-year stint as a member of the Democratic Party will be cut short, she said, is her fear that "President (Joe) Biden and Democratic Party elites have pushed us to the precipice of nuclear war, risking starting World War III and destroying the world as we know it".