Former Democrat Warns Trump 'Not to Underestimate' Harris Before the Big Debate

Rep. from Hawaii and former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard has been huddling with the Republican nominee for president in recent weeks as he prepares for the second round of presidential debate. Gabbard recently endorsed former president Donald Trump and said that voters "will have an opportunity" to evaluate the records of the current and previous administrations during an exclusive interview with CNN's Dana Bash. She mentioned that Vice President Kamala Harris is a 'knowledgeable' opponent and that Trump shouldn't "underestimate" her at their September 10th political face-off. “I think Kamala Harris has a lot of experience. She is not to be underestimated,” the former 2020 presidential candidate said while appearing on the State of the Union segment. 

“President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have very different records. This is a unique situation where we have two candidates who have served at the highest offices in the land, President Trump four years as president, Kamala Harris now almost four years as vice president, working alongside President Biden,” she continued. In an event presented by ABC News, Harris, and Trump are scheduled to debate this month in Philadelphia.

According to The Hill, discussing her role in prepping the GOP nominee Gabbard said, “If I can be helpful to President Trump in any way, it really is just in sharing experience that I had with her on that debate stage in 2020, and frankly, helping to point out some ways that Kamala Harris has already shown that she is trying to move away from her record, move away from her positions, and how that contradicts the positions and statements that she is making now that she is the Democratic nominee." 

As per The Guardian, Gabbard is training Trump to call out Harris for her lack of consistency, “Kamala Harris is an empty suit,” the former Democrat told Fox News. “In 2019, I confronted her with her hypocrisy – that what she said was very different from what she actually did.” During the 2019 race, the former congresswoman made headlines by publicly criticizing Harris for imprisoning hundreds of Californians for marijuana offenses while serving as attorney general, yet publicly admitting to being a user herself.

"She put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana," Gabbard said then. "They are trying to create this new version of Kamala Harris to match what their pollsters are telling them, so she can say whatever she needs to say to try to win over voters, which is the most offensive thing because they think we're so stupid as to forget what her record actually is," the independent political figure concluded. 

"President Trump has proven to be one of the best debaters in political history as evidenced by his knockout blow to Joe Biden," Karoline Leavitt, Trump's National Press Secretary said via a statement. "He does not need traditional debate prep but will continue to meet with respected policy advisors and effective communicators like Tulsi Gabbard, who successfully dominated Kamala Harris on the debate stage in 2020."