By Victor Nava
Donald Trump has enlisted the help of former Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as he fine-tunes for his first debate against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Gabbard, 43, took part in a recent strategy session with the former president, 78, at his Mar-Lago estate ahead of his September debate against the 59-year-old Democratic nominee, according to the New York Times.
Gabbard, who at one point was on Trump’s lengthy running mate shortlist, has experience debating Harris dating back to their time as Democratic presidential primary candidates in 2019, and she unleashed a blistering attack on the then-California senator’s record as top prosecutor in the Golden State in one of their showdowns.
Gabbard, a former Democrat, has experience debating Harris during the 2020 presidential primary race.Getty Images
The Trump campaign confirmed that the former Democratic congresswoman was helping the former president, who is famously not a fan of traditional debate prep, get in shape for his face-off with Harris.
“[Trump has] proven to be one of the best debaters in political history as evidenced by his knockout blow to Joe Biden,” campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told the Times.
“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,” she added.
At a July 2019 primary debate, Gabbard pilloried Harris’ record as California’s attorney general.
“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,” Gabbard said in the viral moment.
“She blocked evidence, she blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so.”
At a subsequent debate, Harris charged that Gabbard’s foreign policy views and criticisms of the Democratic Party establishment made her unfit to seek the party’s nomination for president.
“Our Democratic Party, unfortunately, is not the party that is of, by and for the people,” Gabbard shot back, arguing that the party “continues to be influenced by the foreign policy establishment represented by Hillary Clinton and others.”
The zinger was met with approval from the Trump campaign, which retweeted a clip of the exchange.
Harris dropped out of the presidential primary race shortly after that November 2019 debate while Gabbard suspended her campaign in March 2020.
Trump and Harris will square off for the first time in Philadelphia on Sep. 10 on ABC.
