Kamala Harris Swings and Misses in Democratic Debate.
It seemed obvious to many viewers it was a setup.
In this Wednesday’s Fifth 2020 Democratic Debate something odd happened, at around 45 minutes in, just after Tulsi Gabbard was asked her first question at the debate, the NBC moderator asked Kamala Harris to respond to Tulsi even though the question didn’t concern her and Tulsi didn’t mention her.
Moderator: Congresswoman Gabbard, you have criticized Hillary Clinton as the “personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party.” What is the rot you see in the Democratic Party?
Tulsi Gabbard: That our democratic party, unfortunately, is not the party that is of, by, and for the people. It’s a party that has been and continues to be influenced by the foreign policy establishment in Washington represented by Hillary Clinton and others’ foreign policy, by the military-industrial complex and other greedy corporate interests. I’m running for president to be the Democratic nominee that rebuilds our democratic party, takes it out of their hands and truly puts it in the hands of the people of this country. A party that actually hears the voices of Americans who are struggling all across this country, and puts it in the hands of veterans and fellow Americans who are calling for an end to this ongoing Bush-Clinton-Trump foreign policy doctrine of regime-change wars, overthrowing dictators in other countries, needlessly sending my brothers and sisters in uniform into harm’s way to fight in wars that actually undermine our national security and have cost us thousands of American lives. These are wars that have cost us as American taxpayers trillions of dollars since 911 alone, dollars that have come out of our pockets, out of our hospitals, out of our schools, out of our infrastructure needs. As president, I will end this foreign policy and these regime-change wars, work to end this new cold war and arms race, and instead invest our hard-earned taxpayer dollars actually into serving the needs of the American people.
As you can see there is nothing Tulsi said that Kamala or any other candidate would or should need to respond to.
Moderator: Senator Harris, any response?
Harris: Oh sure. I think that 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 full-time on Fox News criticizing President Obama, who has spent full-time criticizing people on this stage as affiliated with the democratic party. When Donald Trump was elected — not even sworn in — buddied up to Steve Bannon to get a meeting with Donald Trump in the Trump Tower, fails to call a war criminal by what he is as a war criminal, and then spends full-time during the course of this campaign again criticizing the Democratic Party. 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 that 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. I believe I am that candidate.
As you can see Kamala did not respond to any criticism that Tulsi leveled, nor did she respond to anything that Tulsi said. I will breakdown these smears later, but first, let’s hear what Tulsi had to say.
Moderator: Thank you, Senator. Congresswoman Gabbard, I’ll give you a chance to respond.
Gabbard: 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’m making, the leadership and the change that I’m seeking to bring in our foreign policy, which only makes me guess that she will as president continue the status quo, continue the Bush-Clinton-Trump foreign policy of regime change wars, which is deeply destructive. This is personal to me because I served in Iraq, I left my seat in the state legislature in Hawaii, volunteered to deploy to Iraq where I served in the medical unit where every single day I saw the terribly high human cost of war. I take very seriously the responsibility of the president has to serve as commander-in-chief, to lead our Armed Forces and to make sure always — no, I’m not gonna put party interest first. I will put the interest of the American people above all else.
Then even more inexplicably the moderator went back to Harris again, yes Tulsi had mentioned her in her response, but generally, in the Democratic debates, they do not allow for such fourth responses.
Moderator: Thank you, congresswoman. I want to briefly give Senator Harris a final second to respond.
Harris: I believe that what our nation needs right now is a nominee who can speak to all people. I spent my entire career standing mostly in the courtroom, speaking five words: “Kamala Harris for the people.” And it was about all the people regardless of their race, regardless of their gender, regardless of where they live geographically, regardless of the party with which they’re registered to vote or the language that their grandmother speaks. We need someone on this debate stage in November who has the ability to unify the country and to win the election. And I believe again that I’m that candidate.
Harris again does not respond to anything Tulsi said about her and makes the strange claim that the whole while she was in court prosecuting people she did it by saying “Kamala Harris for the people.” Really?
To Harris, it was about convicting everyone “regardless of their race, regardless of their gender, regardless of where they live geographically, regardless of the party with which they’re registered to vote or the language that their grandmother speaks”
Reality is that Kamala let those with power and money like Steve Mnuchin go free while jailing parents for their kid’s truancy while accepting campaign donations from Ivanka and Donald J Trump.
Now to break down the smears:
“who, during the Obama administration spent four years full-time on Fox News criticizing President Obama”
Tulsi is consistent in criticizing bad foreign policy regardless of the person in the Oval office. For the last 4 years of Barack Obama’s presidency, Tulsi Gabbard appeared on CNN 80 times, MSNBC: 30 times, FOX: 24 times.
Sometimes she was critical of the Obama-Clinton foreign policy to arm “moderate rebels” aka al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria to overthrow the secular government and install a theocracy. As we all know these “rebels” were directly connected to al-Qaeda. Arming the folks that attacked us on 9/11 deserves criticism.
“…who has spent full-time criticizing people on this stage as affiliated with the democratic party…”
This is patently false. Tulsi has never criticized Democrats for being Democrats.
“When Donald Trump was elected — not even sworn in — buddied up to Steve Bannon to get a meeting with Donald Trump in the Trump Tower”
Tulsi met with Trump on November 22, 2016, to discuss foreign policy including Syria.
Tulsi Gabbard wrote:
It would have been easier for me to refuse this meeting. The establishment and social media has been talking about this all day. But I never have and never will play politics with American and Syrian lives.
In fact, like President Obama, I strongly believe that now is the time for us to put our country first, and come together, regardless of political party, and tackle the many challenges we face.
This was an opportunity to advocate for peace — and I felt it was important to take the opportunity to meet with the President-elect to counteract neocons’ steady drumbeats of war, which threaten to drag us into an escalation of the war to overthrow the Syrian government.
Read more:
The fact that Bannon suggested the meeting to Trump, is what Kamala calls buddying up, simply an attempt at an association fallacy.
“fails to call a war criminal by what he is as a war criminal”
Kamala knows well that someone is not a war criminal until proven so in a court of law. Has Kamala ever called for Assad to be tried? No.
On April 6, 2017, Tulsi Gabbard said:
“If President Assad is indeed guilty of this horrible chemical attack on innocent civilians, I will be the first to call for his prosecution and execution by the International Criminal Court.”
“…spends full-time during the course of this campaign again criticizing the Democratic Party…”
Tulsi has called to end the corruption that we all know resides in the BOTH parties.
Tulsi has called on the Democratic National Committee to revise their list of debate qualifying polls to ensure transparency and fairness in light of numerous irregularities in the selection and timing of those polls. She feels that artificially narrowing the field is disrespectful to voters whose votes usually decide if candidates continue or not based on primary results.
“…we need someone on that stage that has the ability to go toe-to-toe with Donald Trump…”
Tulsi is the only one who can go after Trump failed promises of ending “stupid wars”
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