According to recent reports, former President Donald Trump has brought on former Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard to assist with debate preparations against Vice President Kamala Harris. During the Democratic primary debates in 2019, Gabbard made headlines after brilliantly roasting Harris on her criminal justice record.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt stated, “[Trump has] proven to be one of the best debaters in political history as evidenced by his knockout blow to Joe Biden.” She added, “He does not need traditional debate prep but will continue to meet with respected policy advisers and effective communicators like Tulsi Gabbard, who successfully dominated Kamala Harris on the debate stage in 2020.”
On the resurfaced footage from the 2019 debates where Gabbard obliterated Harris on her prosecutorial record. For context, as a prosecutor, Harris took an extremely tough stance on marijuana charges, incarcerating thousands of offenders for possession of the drug. Later, Harris admitted to smoking weed, leading many to call her out for the seeming hypocrisy.
During the debate, Gabbard said, “Senator Harris says she’s proud of her record as a prosecutor and that she’ll be a prosecutor president, but I’m deeply concerned about this record. There are too many examples to cite, but she put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.”
She continued blasting Harris’ record, stating, “She blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so. She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California and she fought to keep cash bail system in place that impacts poor people in the worst kind of way.”
In the aftermath of the debate, then-Senator Harris attempted to defend herself, claiming that Gabbard was trying to draw attention to herself to remain on the debate stage. “This is going to sound immodest, but I’m obviously a top tier candidate, and so, I did expect that I would be on the stage and take hits tonight because there are a lot of people that are trying to make the stage for the next debate. Especially when people are at zero or one percent or whatever she might be at, and so, I did expect that I might take hits tonight,” she said.
The Tribune reported on other comments from Gabbard earlier this year, where she asserted that Americans should be “very, very afraid,” of a Kamala Harris presidency. “I think our country should be very, very afraid of a president and commander-in-chief Kamala Harris. I can’t think of anybody else who is more unqualified to be president and commander-in-chief than Kamala Harris and I say this as an American and as a servicemember who still wears the uniform serving in the Army Reserve,” Gabbard said.
Watch the 2019 debate where Gabbard sounded off on Harris:
She maintained that Harris’ leadership would be utterly detrimental to the nation. “This would be absolutely disastrous for the country, but it would also just be a continuation of what we’ve seen with Joe Biden’s foreign policy and how he has carried himself as commander-in-chief.”
