Former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who switched to Independent, has endorsed former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race against Vice President Kamala Harris. “We as Americans must stand together to reject this anti-freedom culture of political retaliation and abuse of power. We can’t allow our country to be destroyed by politicians who will put their own power ahead of the interests of the American people, our freedom, and our future,” Gabbard said at the National Guard conference in Detroit on Monday.
Gabbard endorsed the anniversary of the suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members after the chaotic Afghanistan War withdrawal. “I am proud to stand here before you today, whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican or an Independent,” Gabbard, a veteran and current U.S. Army Reserve officer, said. “If you love our country, as I do, if you cherish peace and freedom as we do, I invite you to join me in doing all that we can to save our country and elect President Donald J. Trump and send him back to the White House to do the tough work of saving our country and serving the people.”
Gabbard, who represented Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district as a Democrat from 2013 to 2021, left the party in 2022, criticizing it as an “elitist cabal of warmongers.” After running against Kamala Harris in the 2019 Democratic presidential primary, Gabbard has now been brought on by Trump to assist with debate preparation for his upcoming September 10 debate against Harris at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
Since switching her party affiliation before the 2022 midterms, Gabbard has been a vocal critic of the Democratic Party. She has spoken at conservative events, including the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and the Faith and Freedom Coalition Road to Majority Conference.
According to The New York Times, Trump’s choice to bring Gabbard onto his team was significantly influenced by her standout performance in the CNN debate, where she notably criticized Harris’s record as a prosecutor in California. In the 2019 Democratic debate, Gabbard had accused Harris of exacerbating the systemic failures of the criminal justice system—a point she is expected to emphasize again as she assists Trump in his preparations. Trump aims to leverage the impact of Gabbard’s critique as he prepares to challenge the vice president.
“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,” Gabbard said during the debate. “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 blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so,” she continued. “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 an email, Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt confirmed Gabbard’s participation to the Times. Leavitt said [Trump] has “proven to be one of the best debaters in political history as evidenced by his knockout blow to Joe Biden. 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.”
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