WASHINGTON: Tulsi Gabbarda former congressman, White House candidate, self-described Hindu American and rising star who clashed with the Democratic Party over national security issues, endorsed Donald Trump for the US presidency on Monday, marking another victory for MAGA Republican candidate who is increasingly losing support from moderate GOP supporters.
Gabbard, a four-term delegate from Hawaii, a Democratic stronghold, was drafted as a counterweight to Trump’s debate preparations and went against the grain in her home state. She formally entered Trump’s camp, accusing her former party and the presidential candidate of using American institutions as a weapon against both Trump and herself. She is also close to India’s right-wing ecosystem, with a top RSS official, Ram Madhav, among others, attending her 2015 wedding in Hawaii.
Gabbard made it cozy MAGA Republicans have been in a frenzy for months following disagreements over foreign policy and unrest among her former colleagues who see her as a “Russian asset” because of her benign views of Vladimir Putin that are more in line with Trump’s. She has become famous for clashing with both Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris, accusing them of being “puppets of the military-industrial complex and the national security state.”
For her dissenting views, she was reportedly placed on a domestic terror watch list called “Quiet Skies” that monitors airline passengers, a development that appears to have infuriated her. On Monday, she accused Kamala Harris, with whom she clashed during a 2019 presidential debate, of undermining civil liberties, saying: “We as Americans must stand together to reject this anti-freedom culture of political retribution and abuse of power.”
Gabbard’s arrival in the Trump fold shortly after independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. endorsed him last week goes some way to mitigating the moderate Republican bleeding from the MAGA ranks. At least half a dozen Republicans spoke and endorsed Kamala Harris at last week’s Democratic convention.
Over the weekend, a dozen Republican White House lawyers who served in the administrations of then-Presidents Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and George W Bush endorsed Kamala Harris for president. Additionally, more than 200 Republicans who worked for GOP candidates George Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney also signed a letter endorsing Harris.
Meanwhile, the two sides continued to fight over the rules for the planned Sept. 10 debate. The Trump campaign now accuses Harris of avoiding confrontation by trying to change rules, including requiring microphones to be on at all times for both candidates and seating and reference notes for both.
Harris is also being pilloried, even by some Democrats, for his continued avoidance of press conferences and in-person interviews.