Donald Trump has brought in Tulsi Gabbard, the woman credited with destroying Kamala Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign, to help him prepare from his debate with the Vice President next month.
According to The New York Times, the former Democrat Congresswoman was brought in “to help sharpen his attacks in a recent practice session at his private club and home, Mar-a-Lago.” The Times cites “two people with knowledge of Mr Trump’s schedule.”
A spokeswoman for the former president confirmed the appointment, saying that 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.”
Gabbard is widely credited with ending Harris’s bid for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination during the 2019 CNN debate, when she calmly dissected the Vice President’s record as a public prosecutor in California.
Gabbard said that Harris “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 also accused Harris of withholding evidence that could have let an innocent man leave death row, until a court “forced her” to give it up.
Although Harris replied that she was “proud of making a decision to not just give fancy speeches, or be in a legislative body and give speeches on the floor, but actually doing the work,” she had no real answer to the charges laid before her by Gabbard. She dropped out of the race a month later.
On Friday, ABC revealed that the first debate will take place in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center on 10 September at 9pm EDT. It will be moderated by David Muir, who anchors World News Tonight, and Linsey Davis, a news anchor and correspondent. It will be available to watch on ABC, ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.
The Harris campaign has dismissed calls from Donald Trump to hold more than two presidential debates, issuing a statement on Thursday that the “debate about debates is over.” Kamala Harris has indicated that she is prepared to debate Trump again after the vice-presidential debate, which is now scheduled for 1 October.
Trump has pushed repeatedly for there to be three presidential debates. On 8 August, he said that he had negotiated debates with ABC, NBC and Fox News. One of Trump’s advisors said that Trump will hold town halls if the Vice President rejects the additional debates.
The candidates for vice president, JD Vance and Tim Walz, are now also scheduled to meet. Their debate will take place on 1 October in New York City and will be hosted by CBS.
