Donald Trump is leaning on former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard to prepare for the debate after her viral criticism of Kamala Harris just five years ago.
Gabbard criticized Harris for her record on criminal justice in a televised debate when they both ran unsuccessfully for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
The Hawaii congresswoman, who has since abandoned Democrats and become more friendly to conservatives, is set to offer the president some advice ahead of the first presidential debate between Trump and Harris.
Gabbard and Trump have already held a practice session for their Sept. 10 showdown in Philadelphia, where she will no doubt remind him of how he destroyed her in the 2019 debate.
The congresswoman claimed Harris locked up more than 1,500 minor drug offenders “and then laughed about it when asked if she had ever smoked marijuana” on a radio show.
Donald Trump leans on former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard to prepare for the debate after her viral criticism of Kamala Harris just five years ago
Gabbard criticized Harris for her record on criminal justice in a televised debate when they both ran unsuccessfully for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
He accused her of keeping innocent people in jail and extending sentences to take advantage of their free work, in a scathing attack on the former US senator and attorney general of the Golden State.
“There is no excuse for this, and the people who suffered under his watch as prosecutor owe him an apology,” Gabbard insisted.
Harris, a lawmaker who had risen to prominence with an attack on Joe Biden in the last debate, got a taste of her own medicine in Detroit, where she was again on stage with Biden.
Gabbard said she was “deeply concerned” by Harris’ record as her state’s top prosecutor. “There are too many examples to cite.”
“She fought to keep the cash bail system in place, which hurts poor people the worst,” Gabbard said to applause.
Enraged, Harris said she had done the job of “significantly reforming criminal justice” for a state of 40 million people and would decriminalize
“The bottom line is, Senator Harris, that when you were in a position to make a difference and have an impact on these people’s lives, you failed to do so and worse yet, in the case of those on death row, innocent people, you actually blocked the disclosure of evidence that would have freed them until you were forced to do so,” she said.
“There is no excuse for that, and the people who suffered under his mandate as prosecutor owe him an apology.”
Gabbard and Trump have already held a practice session for their Sept. 10 showdown in Philadelphia, where she will no doubt remind him of how he eviscerated her in the 2019 debate.
Gabbard accused Harris of keeping innocent people in jail and extending sentences to take advantage of their free work, in a harsh attack on the former US senator and attorney general of the Golden State.
Harris did not directly challenge that allegation in her rebuttal. She focused on her personal opposition to the death penalty and the “very difficult” decisions she made in not seeking the death penalty in widely publicized cases.
But after the debate, CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked him to respond.
Instead, she dismissed Gabbard as a loser and a defender of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator, whom Gabbard met after the start of his brutal civil war.
In a statement, Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not describe it as standard debate practice for the ABC News event.
“President Trump has proven himself to be one of the greatest debaters in political history, as evidenced by the knockout blow he delivered to Joe Biden,” he said.
‘She doesn’t need traditional debate preparation, but she will still meet with respected political advisors and effective communicators like Tulsi Gabbard, who successfully dominated Kamala Harris on the debate stage in 2020.’
One person who tried to fight back from the other side was Lis Smith, who was running Pete Buttigieg’s rival campaign.
He cited a moment when the now-Transportation Secretary had the audience mockingly laugh at Gabbard for her comments about national security and talks with Assad.
One person who tried to fight back from the other side was Lis Smith, who was running Pete Buttigieg’s rival campaign.
In October 2022, Gabbard announced she was leaving the Democratic Party because it was “under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by a cowardly conscience.”
This has made her a favorite among conservatives, to the point that some have proposed her as a leftist option for Trump’s vice president in 2024.
Gabbard spoke in February to a CPAC ballroom packed with Trump supporters who cheered her as she praised the former president for continuing to fight the establishment elite in Washington, D.C.
“I’ve met a lot of strong, tough people in my life, I can’t think of a single one who could not only withstand everything that Donald Trump is throwing at him without breaking down, but someone who actually decided to continue fighting against the entire Washington establishment,” Gabbard said.