How Tulsi Gabbard's big moment with Kamala Harris will influence Tuesday's debate

It was 2019, and the second debate of the Democratic presidential primary was taking place in Detroit when then-Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii went for the throat.

Gabbard was not targeting Joe Biden, who was the frontrunner at the time.

Instead, she turned to Kamala Harris, then the junior senator from California, and launched a fierce attack, dissecting in detail her record as a prosecutor.

“I want to turn the conversation back to the broken criminal justice system that disproportionately negatively impacts Black and brown people across the country today,” Gabbard began, attacking Harris from the left. “Now Senator Harris says she is proud of her record as a prosecutor and will be a prosecutor in office. But I am deeply concerned about that record. There are too many examples to cite, but she put over 1,500 people in prison for marijuana violations and then laughed it off when asked if she ever smoked marijuana.”

Gabbard received loud, rousing applause. She went on to accuse Harris of blocking evidence in a death row trial, keeping people in prison beyond their sentences, and supporting a failed bail system. The room erupted into loud applause several times.

At the time, fact-checkers analyzed Gabbard's allegations and said some of them were not accurate. Still, it became a major moment for Gabbard – even if Harris responded forcefully – and it was a standout episode in her short-lived 2020 presidential campaign.

Now, ahead of Tuesday's second presidential debate, it's back in the spotlight after Donald Trump hired Gabbard as an assistant to help him prepare for the debate. Trump campaign officials said he valued Gabbard's experience in verbally exchanging blows with Harris and that the team had been consulting her for some time. In 2022, Gabbard announced her departure from the Democratic Party and campaigned for Republican candidates.

In February, she headlined a fundraiser for Trump at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida residence. Gabbard was one of Trump's running mate choices and has become a more active member of his team. She frequently criticizes Harris on Fox News, moderated a town hall meeting for Trump and was recently named to his transition team.

In 2020, when there was a crowded primary field, Gabbard's focus on Harris surprised many observers.

“I remember thinking, 'Hmm, that's an interesting target — why Kamala?' When you assess the race, nobody thought Kamala was the frontrunner at that point,” says Mark Longabough, a Democratic strategist who, as an adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), got to know Gabbard in 2016 when she was Sanders' running mate. The attacks were effective, Longabough says, in part because Harris was not yet nationally known.

“When someone comes at you like that and makes a series of allegations, voters are left scratching their heads because they don't know anything. If she had attacked Biden or Bernie or someone more well-known in that area, it might not have been as effective in some ways,” Longabough said. “Harris was kind of caught off guard. She didn't expect Tulsi Gabbard to attack her so hard out of the blue.”

Asked about Gabbard's involvement in debate preparations — as is common in Trump world — a Trump campaign aide said she helped Trump think about shifting course from attacking Harris to emphasizing his policies or what he would do differently. That included talking about how to go beyond the attack lines he makes at rallies and into coherent debate responses. The campaign aide said the Trump team had been trying to engage Gabbard for some time.

“Tulsi Gabbard kicked Kamala Harris's ass on the debate stage,” said Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. “She is giving President Trump her advice ahead of Tuesday's debate.”

Harris' campaign team declined to comment.

When Gabbard attacked her, Harris had just come off her own big debate moment. In the first debate of 2020, Harris attacked Biden on a packed stage for a decades-old busing policy and for his past comments about working with segregationist senators.

“I don't think you're a racist,” she said during the meeting. The fact that this prospect was even mentioned annoyed the Biden team at the time.

At the debate in Detroit, Harris hit back, accusing Gabbard of appearing on Fox News and attacking Barack Obama during his administration. When Trump was elected but not yet sworn in, Harris accused Gabbard of “befriending Steve Bannon to get a meeting with Donald Trump at Trump Tower.”

Gabbard remains a confusing and polarizing political figure. Once considered a rising star in the party, she was such a staunch Sanders supporter that she delivered his nomination speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran, launched her 2020 campaign as a progressive Democrat and at one point blasted Trump's foreign policy, accusing Harris of being aligned with him and others. She said Harris would “continue the status quo, continue the foreign policy of regime change wars of Bush, Clinton and Trump.”

Gabbard had already directly criticized Trump in 2018 and attracted some attention.

“Hey @realdonaldtrump: Being Saudi Arabia's bitch is not 'America First,'” she wrote on X.

Gabbard has long drawn ridicule from Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, who in 2019 claimed – without explicitly mentioning her name – that Gabbard was “the Russians’ favorite.”

“I don't dare make any predictions, but I believe they have their eye on a candidate who is currently running in the Democratic primary and are grooming her as a third-party candidate,” Clinton said.

When Gabbard dropped out of the 2020 presidential race, she endorsed Biden.

“I know Joe Biden and his wife, and I am grateful to have been able to call his son Beau, who also served in the National Guard, a friend,” she said in a video statement at the time. “While I do not agree with the Vice President on everything, I know he has a good heart and is motivated by his love for our country and the American people. I am confident he will lead our country in the spirit of aloha, respect and compassion, helping to heal the divisions that have divided our country.”