Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) dances as he leaves the stage after speaking alongside former US Representative Tulsi Gabbard during a town hall meeting in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on August 29, 2024.
Kamil Krzaczynski | Afp | Getty Images
Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who has endorsed Republican former President Donald Trump’s campaign, is advising the GOP nominee to focus on Vice President Kamala Harris’ policy pivots in their upcoming debate.
Harris “has already shown that she is trying to move away from her record, move away from her positions,” Gabbard said in a Sunday interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Gabbard is part of a small group of Trump advisers who are helping the former president prepare for the debate, scheduled for Sept. 10 on ABC.
Trump’s campaign insists that the candidate does not engage in traditional role playing debate practice sessions. Still, Gabbard is uniquely suited to help Trump understand what it would be like to debate Harris, given her firsthand experience during the 2020 Democratic primary contest.
“What I pointed out in that debate stage in the 2020 campaign was her hypocrisy,” Gabbard said.
In July of 2019, Gabbard launched a noteworthy attack on Harris during a Democratic primary debate, noting that as a prosecutor Harris had secured jail time for marijuana violations, and accusing Harris of not having done enough to eliminate cash bail.
At the time, criminal justice reform was a very popular issue among Democratic primary voters.
Five years later, Republicans are hoping that Trump can repeat Gabbard’s success in rattling Harris, albeit on entirely different topics.
“Kamala Harris is trying to hide from voters,” Gabbard said on Sunday. “She says her position is one thing, but her actions and her records show exactly the opposite.”
Compared to Harris’ 2019 Democratic primary platform, her 2024 general election policies fall more to the center than the left, especially on issues like fracking and immigration.
For Trump, however, taking Gabbard’s advice could carry risks as well as potential rewards.
The former congresswoman from Hawaii shares Trump’s conspiratorial view of how the Biden administration exercises power, and she regularly accuses the White House of targeting “political opponents,” herself included.
If Trump leans into these kinds of conspiratorial themes on the debate stage, he could risk drawing attention to his various legal battles, or even alienating undecided voters.
Still, surrogates like Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the former Democrat turned third-party presidential candidate who recently dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump, allow the Republican to paint his campaign as a refuge for independents and Democratic defectors.
The Trump campaign recently added both Gabbard and RFK Jr. to its official transition team, and both are in reported talks for potential cabinet positions if Trump wins the White House.