Exclusive — Tulsi Gabbard: How Kamala Harris Handles Unscripted Moments in Debate Will Be ‘Very Revealing’
AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
How Vice President and Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris handles “unscripted moments” during the Tuesday night debate against former President Donald Trump will be “very revealing,” Democrat-turned-independent former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (I-HI) said during an interview on Breitbart News Daily.
Gabbard joined host Mike Slater on Monday to discuss her decision to leave the Democrat party and endorse Donald Trump. She also discussed how she is helping Trump prepare for his first televised debate with Harris — especially after Gabbard’s fiery exchanges with Harris during the 2019 Democratic primary debates were so devastating that the Harris campaign never recovered from them.
“At that point in the race, it was very clear she was being handled with kid gloves by the mainstream media and the Democrat elite leadership. No one was challenging her on her record,” Gabbard reflected on the 2019 exchange. “…It was very similar to 2016, when Hillary Clinton ran for president, and everyone said she was the most qualified person ever to run for president in our nation’s history — listing out her different titles in government, but never confronting her about her war-mongering record.”
“This is going to be the same challenge that Kamala Harris has in tomorrow’s debate. She’s been vice president for the last three and a half years. She has a very clear record on all of the important issues that the American people are most concerned about, both domestic and foreign. She’s trying very hard to run away from those,” she added.
“President Trump also has a very clear record on those issues during his first term in the presidency. And so she’s going to have to be confronted. President Trump knows her record very well. She’s going to have to answer some tough questions about why she didn’t fix the things that she is now claiming are broken,” she continued.
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Gabbard noted that in 2019, Harris “appeared to be quite unprepared to answer for her own record” — a mistake she likely will not make again.
“Kamala will deliver some very well-rehearsed lines. I have no doubt that’s what she’s doing now, is memorizing those lines and doing so by being grilled with a Donald Trump stand-in,” she said.
“But again, in the same way that I did with her in 2019, how she does in those unscripted moments, how she does in response to the truths and facts that Donald Trump will be sharing with the American people that she does not want them to know — this is going to be very revealing.”
Gabbard noted Trump’s uphill battle, given that the media is “already paving the way for her to try to sail through this on what they call the ‘vibes’ campaign.” Harris has also faced minimal pressure for her shifting policy positions and her unwillingness to sit down with media, Gabbard pointed out.
As Breitbart News reported, Harris has only sat for one interview — which was prerecorded — since joining the race seven weeks ago on July 21, 2024. In those seven weeks, Harris allegedly changed her view, outright flip-flopped, or has an unknown position in nine areas.
Those topics include:
“So again, fine, if she has new information, we would hope our leaders evolve and learn when they’re presented with new information,” Gabbard said. “But that’s the issue with Kamala Harris, is none of that has happened directly or indirectly through her staff. And she has not put herself into a position to speak to the American people.”
She continued, “One of the things that I think is a big slap in the face to voters across the country — and really a sign of her arrogance — is all of the hype that went [into] that dual CNN interview. It really made me feel as I watched that, that in Kamala Harris’s mind, she is gracing us as voters with her presence for that 16 minutes and [29] seconds that she actually spoke during that interview. That somehow, we were fortunate to be able to hear from her when, when really, we are the ones who are in a position to hire you. We need to know more about who you are and what you really stand for.”
As for how Trump should handle Tuesday’s debate, Gabbard said the former President should act as he did in the debate with President Joe Biden, which ultimately revealed Biden’s cognitive decline and precipitated the end of his reelection campaign.
“No matter what happened with Joe Biden, [Trump] didn’t get personal. He stayed very focused on the issues that are most important to the American people and kept reminding voters about the truth of Joe Biden’s record. He will do the same with Kamala Harris and not allow her to get away with the lies that she’s telling the American people,” Gabbard said.
“President Trump is looking forward to this debate. He knows her record. He knows these issues. He talks about them almost every day,” she continued. “This is going to be the opportunity for the American people — for the first time with Kamala Harris — to be directly confronted with the truth about her record, which in so many cases stands diametrically opposed to the rhetoric that she is using.”
The debate will occur on Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. ET at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ABC News has shared details on how to tune in to the debate here.
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
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