Kamala Harris ripped into Tulsi Gabbard at last night's Democratic debate after Gabbard was asked by moderator Ashley Parker about her assertion that Hillary Clinton is the “personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party.” Parker asked Gabbard what that rot is?
Replied Gabbard, in part: “That our Democratic Party, unfortunately, is not the party that is of, by, and for the people. It is 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.”
Harris was asked to respond, and she didn't hold back: “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 — 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.”
Gabbard responded: “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.”
On MSNBC, former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt called Gabbard's night “spectacularly bad.”
Said Schmidt: “I think that Tulsi Gabbard was just awful. Spectacularly bad. In fact, in a week between Prince Andrew, Jim Jordan, and Devin Nunes she made a legitimate run for the medal podium. And just dishonest, at a pretty large level. But I think all the candidates have reason to feel good coming out of this tonight.”
