It was 2019 and the second Democratic presidential primary debate was taking place in Detroit when then-Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii grabbed him by the throat.

Gabbard was not targeting Joe Biden, who was the favorite at the time.

Instead, she turned to Kamala Harris, then the junior senator from California, and launched a bitter attack that detailed her record as a prosecutor.

“I want to bring the conversation back to the broken criminal justice system that disproportionately impacts Black and brown people across this country today,” Gabbard began, attacking Harris from the left. “Now Senator Harris says she’s proud of her record as a prosecutor and she’s going to be the president of the DA. But I have deep concerns about that record. There are too many examples to list, but she’s put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana offenses and then laughed about it when asked if she’d ever smoked marijuana.”

Gabbard was met with loud, raucous cheers and applause. She went on to accuse Harris of blocking evidence in a death row case, keeping people in jail longer than their sentences were due, and supporting a broken bail system. The room erupted in applause several times.

At the time, fact-checkers analyzed Gabbard’s claims and said some of them were inaccurate. Still, it was a landmark moment for Gabbard — even as Harris responded forcefully — and a notable episode in her short-lived 2020 presidential campaign.

It’s now come back into focus ahead of Tuesday’s second presidential debate, after Donald Trump tapped Gabbard to help him prepare for his debate. Trump campaign officials have said he valued Gabbard’s experience in verbal battles with Harris and that the team had sought her advice for some time. In 2022, Gabbard announced she was leaving the Democratic Party and has campaigned for Republican candidates.

In February, she headlined a fundraiser for Trump at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home. Gabbard was one of Trump’s vice presidential contenders, and she has become a more active part of his team. She’s a frequent critic of Harris on Fox News, moderated a town hall for Trump, and was recently named to his transition team.

In 2020, when the primary field was so crowded, Gabbard surprised many observers with his focus on Harris.

“I remember thinking, ‘Hmm, that’s an interesting target — why Kamala?’ If you handicapped the race, no one would think Kamala was the front-runner at that point,” said Mark Longabough, a Democratic strategist who, as an adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., met Gabbard in 2016 when she was Sanders’ deputy. The attacks were effective, Longabough said, in part because Harris was not yet nationally known.

“When someone comes at you like that and files a bunch of charges, voters scratch their heads because they don’t know. If she had gone at Biden or Bernie or someone more known in the field, it might not have been as effective,” Longabough said. “Harris was a little caught off guard. She didn’t expect Tulsi Gabbard to just come at her like that.”

Asked about Gabbard’s involvement in debate preparations — as is common in Trump world — a Trump campaign official said she helped Trump think about shifting from attacks on Harris to emphasizing his policies or what he would do differently. That included discussing how to move beyond the lines of attack he delivers at rallies to coherent debate responses. The campaign official said the Trump team had been trying to get Gabbard involved for some time.

“Tulsi Gabbard really took a beating on Kamala Harris on the debate stage,” Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said. “She’s giving her advice to President Trump ahead of Tuesday’s debate.”

Harris’ campaign declined to comment.

When Gabbard went after her, Harris was coming off her own big debate moment. In the first debate of 2020, on a crowded stage, Harris went after Biden over a decades-old busing policy and his past comments about working with segregationist senators.

“I don’t believe you’re a racist,” she said during the meeting. Raising that prospect initially irritated the Biden campaign.

In the Detroit debate, Harris hit back at Gabbard, accusing her of spending time during Barack Obama’s administration going on Fox News and attacking him. When Trump was elected but not yet sworn in, Harris accused Gabbard of “befriending Steve Bannon to get a meeting with Donald Trump at Trump Tower.”

Gabbard remains a confusing and polarizing political figure. She was once seen as a rising star in the party and such a staunch Sanders supporter that she delivered his nomination speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran, began her 2020 campaign as a progressive Democrat and at one point criticized Trump’s foreign policy, accusing Harris of being in line with him and others; she said Harris would “continue the status quo, continue the Bush-Clinton-Trump foreign policy of regime-change wars.”

Gabbard had directly criticized Trump before, including in 2018, and it got some attention.

“Hey @realdonaldtrump: Being Saudi Arabia’s dick isn’t ‘America First,’” she wrote on X.

Gabbard has long drawn the scorn of Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, who suggested in 2019 — without specifically naming her — that Gabbard was “the Russians’ favorite.”

“I’m not making any predictions, but I think they have their eye on someone who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third party nominee,” Clinton said.

When Gabbard withdrew from the 2020 race, she endorsed Biden.

“I know Joe Biden and his wife, and I am grateful to have called his son Beau a friend who also served in the National Guard,” she said in a video statement at the time. “While I may not agree with the VP on all of his points, I know he has a good heart and is motivated by his love for our country and the American people. I am confident he will lead our country guided by the spirit of Aloha, respect, and compassion, and in doing so, help heal the divisions that have torn our country apart.”