The Democratic debate is underway in Atlanta, Georgia. Tulsi Gabbard is on the stage and the first question she received was preordained a couple of weeks ago, when Gabbard and Hillary Clinton got into a very public battle surrounding comments Clinton made. Asked what she meant when she said the Democratic Party had a “rot” inside of it, Gabbard launched into her opening statement.
TULSI GABBARD: 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.
Gabbard continued to talk about the need to change our foreign policy of “regime change wars,” as well as building up infrastructure at home. But it was the opening part of the statement that Sen. Kamala Harris was responding to when asked if she had something to say about Gabbard’s opinion of the Democratic Party.
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS: 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 been 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 but what he is as a war criminal, and then spends full-time during the course of this campaign, again, criticizing the Democratic Party.
Gabbard didn’t like this characterization, specifically the Fox News association. But regardless of your feelings about Harris or Gabbard, that association is a very real thing.
SEN. HARRIS: 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 who 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.
Gabbard responded by saying that Harris was “continuing to traffic in lies and smears and innuendos because she cannot challenge the substance of the argument that I'm making,” and then spoke about her service in the military. Harris responded once again with her assertion that she was the candidate who could speak to and for all the people in the country.