Tulsi Gabbard, Who Ran for 2020 Democratic Nomination, Endorses Trump

Donald Trump, boosted by the endorsement of former Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr., brought another former Democrat into his fold Monday when former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard announced she is backing the former president.

"Whether you're a Democrat, a Republican, or an independent, if you love our country, as I do, if you cherish peace and freedom as we do, I invite you to join me in doing all that we can to save our country and elect President Donald J. Trump and send him back to the White House to do the tough work of saving our country and serving the people," said Gabbard, who represented Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District from 2013-2021, at the National Guard Association of the United States' conference in Detroit.

Her speech aired live on Newsmax and was simulcast on the Newsmax2 online streaming platform.

Gabbard's formal endorsement of Trump is not a big surprise given that she broke with the Democratic Party in 2022, two years after running for the party's presidential nomination, and she has taken more conservative political stances since leaving Congress.

But her endorsement is another example of Trump's campaign casting a big net to recruit voters outside the Republican Party. Her endorsement came on the day marking three years since the deaths of 13 U.S. service members during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"I had the privilege of joining President Trump this morning at Arlington Cemetery, where he joined two Gold Star families and loved ones of Staff Sgt. [Darin Taylor] Hoover and Sgt. [Nicole] Gee, both of whom were two of the 13 killed in the Abbey Gate attack three years ago today in Kabul," she said.

"And I can tell you, as we were there, as he laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier joining these Marines' loved ones, I felt the sorrow that he shared with them in their loss. I felt and saw his sincere appreciation for these servicemen and women who paid the ultimate price, and their loved ones who continue to grieve to this day. This is personal for me, as I know it is for so many of you here. This is real. It's not just words."

Gabbard recalled her first deployment to Iraq in 2005 as part of the Hawaii Army National Guard. She said it was at the height of the war, and her unit took many casualties every day and were confronted with the high human cost of war, especially among those who returned and then died by suicide.

She said she knows Trump understands "the grave responsibility that a president and commander in chief bears for every single one of our lives, whether you're a soldier or you're an airman, a Marine sailor, or a Coastie [Coast Guard], he keeps us in his heart in the decisions that he makes."

"The truth is, as we head toward our decision as a country in November, the same cannot be said about Kamala Harris," Gabbard said. "In fact, the opposite is true. And we're living through this reality today as this administration has us facing multiple wars on multiple fronts and regions around the world and closer to the brink of nuclear war than we ever have been before.

"This is one of the main reasons why I'm committed to doing all that I can to send President Trump back to the White House. … We cannot be prosperous unless we are at peace, and we can't live free as long as we have a government that is retaliating against its political opponents and undermining our civil liberties, weaponizing our very institutions against those they deem as a threat. Kamala Harris has done this over the last 3 1/2 years. She won't hesitate to continue that if she is elected as president."

Gabbard mentioned being put on a secret terror watchlist called Quiet Skies by the Biden-Harris administration after an interview she gave in which she said why Harris would be bad for the country if elected president.

"After exposing the truth about what kind of dangers we would face if Kamala Harris is elected as president, we as Americans must stand together to reject this anti-freedom culture of political retaliation and abuse of power," Gabbard said. "We can't allow our country to be destroyed by politicians who will put their own power ahead of the interests of the American people, our freedom and our future."

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