Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) had time for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) on Wednesday during the fifth round of the 2020 Democratic presidential debates, with Harris taking Gabbard to task for her frequent Fox News appearances and her blunt criticism of the Democratic Party.
The showdown started when Gabbard was asked to explain the “rot” she saw in the Democratic Party.
Gabbard responded that she thought that the party was no longer a party “of, by and for the people” and “continues to be influenced by the foreign-policy establishment represented by Hillary Clinton and others.”
The Hawaii Democrat then went on to say that she was running to put an end to the “Bush-Clinton-Trump foreign-policy doctrine of regime-change wars.”
But Harris was ready, and when asked if she had a response to Gabbard’s criticism, she directly called out the Democrat for her right-wing connections and labeling herself as a Democrat while constantly blasting the party.
“I think it’s unfortunate that we have someone on this stage who is attempting to be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States who during the Obama administration spent four years fulltime on Fox News criticizing President Obama,” Harris said. “Who has spent fulltime criticizing people on this stage and is affiliated with the Democratic party and who when Donald Trump was elected, not even sworn in, buddied up with Steve Bannon to get a meeting with Donald Trump in the Trump Tower.”
Harris also slammed Gabbard for her decision to meet with Syrian President Bashar Asssad, while refusing to explicitly call him a war criminal.
“What we need on the stage in November is someone who has the ability to win and by that, we need someone on that stage who has the ability to go toe to toe with Donald Trump and someone who has the ability to rebuild the Obama coalition and bring the party and the nation together,” Harris continued. “I believe I am that candidate.”
Gabbard rebutted by claiming, “What Senator Harris is doing is, unfortunately, continuing to traffic in lies and smears and innuendos because she cannot challenge the substance of the argument that I am making.”
However, it is true that Gabbard is often a regular on Fox News, usually appearing on Tucker Carson Tonight.
The fact that the Trump campaign tweeted out a snippet of Gabbard’s comments where she criticized the Democratic Party on Wednesday evening, also didn’t help – at least in Harris’ eyes.
“I rest my case,” the California Democrat quipped, tweeting out a screenshot of the Trump campaign’s tweet.