Former U.S. representative Tulsi Gabbard, who left the Democratic Party to become an independent in 2022, has endorsed former president Donald Trump days after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his campaign and threw his support behind the Republican presidential nominee.
Gabbard announced her endorsement on Monday after Trump spoke at a National Guard Association conference in Detroit, where he criticized President Joe Biden’s handling of the military withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago this week.
“I am committed to doing all that I can to send President Trump back to the White House, where he can once again serve us as our commander-in-chief,” Gabbard told the crowd at the same event, saying he is capable of keeping the U.S. out of war.
Having once served in the Hawaii Army National Guard herself, Gabbard noted Trump sees “war as a last resort” and that he, unlike Vice President Kamala Harris, “understands the grave responsibility that a president” bears for the lives of U.S. servicemembers.
Trump said he’s “honored to officially welcome” Gabbard to his campaign efforts, complimenting her “great common sense, great spirit,” and patriotism.
Before her high-profile exit from the Democratic Party two years ago, Gabbard served as U.S. representative for Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021 and ran for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 presidential election. During a Democratic primary debate, she slammed Harris for her record on criminal prosecutions as a California prosecutor.
“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 of Harris in 2019. “She blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so. She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California, and she fought to keep [a] cash-bail system in place that impacts poor people in the worst kind of way.”
The Democrat-turned-independent, who has since been critical of the vice president and Democratic nominee, was reportedly tapped to help Trump prepare for his first debate against Harris next month. That debate is scheduled for September 10 on ABC News, though Trump suggested Sunday night that he could skip the debate because of the news network’s apparent bias against him.
The Trump campaign confirmed Gabbard’s involvement in its debate prep earlier this month.
On Friday, Kennedy joined forces with Trump to defeat Harris in the general election. While announcing his endorsement, Kennedy expressed his displeasure with what the Democratic Party has turned into — which was his primary reason for launching his independent presidential bid last fall.
Kennedy said on Fox News Sunday that the former president will make a “series of announcements about other Democrats who are joining his 2024 campaign.” Both former Democrats, Kennedy and Gabbard will continue campaigning with Trump until November.