It was 2019, and the second Democratic presidential debate was underway in Detroit when then-Rep. Hawaii’s Tulsi Gabbard went for the neck.
Gabbard did not target then-frontrunner Joe Biden.
Instead, he turned to Kamala Harris, the junior senator from California, and launched a scathing attack detailing the prosecution’s filings.
“I want to turn the conversation back to the broken criminal justice system that disproportionately affects black and brown people across the country today,” Gabbard began, taking a left swipe at Harris. “Now Senator Harris says he’s proud of his record as a prosecutor, and he’s going to be president of prosecutors. But this record worries me a lot. There are too many examples to cite, but he has arrested over 1,500 people for marijuana violations and laughed it off when asked if he ever smoked marijuana.
Gabbard earned loud, thunderous applause and cheers. He went on to accuse Harris of blocking evidence in a death penalty case, keeping people in jail beyond their sentences and supporting a broken cash bail system. There were several loud cheers in the room.
At the time, fact-checkers analyzed Gabbard’s claims. said some are not accurate. Still, Harris’s forceful response turned out to be a big moment for Gabbard and a standout episode in her short-lived 2020 presidential campaign.
Ahead of Tuesday’s second presidential debate, it’s back in the spotlight after Donald Trump tapped Gabbard to help him prepare for the debate. Trump campaign officials said he valued Gabbard’s experience sparring with Harris and that the team had been consulting with him for some time. In 2022, Gabbard announced that she was leaving the Democratic Party and campaigned for Republican candidates.
In February, she chaired the fundraiser For Trump, his Florida residence is Mar-a-Lago. Gabbard was among those considered to be Trump’s vice president, and he was is a more active part of the team. He is a frequent Harris critic on Fox News headed the town hall for Trump, and he was recently named to his transition team.
In 2020, amid a crowded primary field, Gabbard’s focus on Harris surprised many observers.
“Hmm, that’s an interesting target – why Kamala?” I remember thinking. If you were impeding the race, then nobody thought Kamala was the front-runner,” said Mark Longabo, a Democratic strategist who met Gabbard as an adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016, when she was a Sanders surrogate. The attacks were effective, Longabough said, in part because Harris was not yet well known nationally.
“When somebody comes after you and starts making a bunch of accusations, voters kind of start scratching their heads because they don’t know. If he had gone after Biden or Bernie or someone better known in the field, it wouldn’t have been effective in some ways,” Longabough said. “Harris was kind of caught off guard. He didn’t expect such an unexpected attack from Tulsi Gabbard.”
We asked about Gabbard’s participation in debate preparations. As in Trump’s world – a Trump campaign official said it helped Trump shift from attacking Harris to highlighting his policies or thinking about what he would do differently. This included talking at rallies about stepping away from his lines of attack on joint debate responses. The Trump team has been trying to get involved with Gabbard for some time, a campaign official said.
“Tulsi Gabbard slapped Kamala Harris on the back on the debate stage,” Trump spokeswoman Carolyn Leavitt said. “He’s offering his advice to President Trump ahead of Tuesday’s debate.”
Harris’ campaign had no comment.
Harris had left when Gabbard followed him its own key moment of discussion. On a packed stage in the first debate of 2020, Harris went after Biden’s decades-long busing policy. his past comments on working with segregationist senators.
“I don’t believe it’s racist,” he said as part of the meeting. At the time, the Biden campaign ranked first and foremost to raise this prospect.
At the Detroit debate, Harris responded to Gabbard, accusing her of going on Fox News and attacking him during the Barack Obama administration. When Trump was elected but not yet sworn in, Harris charged that Gabbard “befriended Steve Bannon to meet with Donald Trump at Trump Tower.”
Gabbard remains a confusing and polarizing political figure. He was once seen as a rising star in the party and a staunch Sanders supporter. made a speech about his candidacy At the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran, launched her 2020 campaign as a progressive Democrat and at one point criticized Trump’s foreign policy, accusing Harris of being in the same position as her and others; Harris said he would “maintain the status quo, continue the Bush-Clinton-Trump foreign policy into regime change wars.”
Gabbard has already been a direct critic of Trump, which has attracted some attention, including in 2018.
“Hey @realdonaldtrump: Being the handmaiden of Saudi Arabia is not ‘America First'” He wrote in X.
Gabbard has long drawn scorn from Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, who suggested in 2019 that Gabbard was a “favorite of the Russians” without using his name.
“I’m not making any predictions, but I think they’re looking at somebody who’s in the Democratic primary right now, and they’re setting him up to be the third-party candidate.” Clinton said.
Gabbard endorsed Biden when he dropped out of the 2020 race.
“I know Joe Biden and his wife and am grateful to call his son Beau a friend who served in the National Guard,” he said. “While I don’t agree with the VP on every issue, I know he has a good heart and is motivated by his love for our country and the American people. I am confident that he will lead our country with a spirit of Aloha, respect and compassion, thus helping to heal the divisiveness that is tearing our country apart.”