Trump pulls in Tulsi Gabbard for debate prep

Former President Donald Trump has begun preparing for his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris and has brought in former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to help sharpen his attacks in a recent practice session at his private club and home, Mar-a-Lago, according to two people with knowledge of Trump’s schedule.

Gabbard, who left the Democratic Party after her 2020 presidential run and has rebranded herself as a celebrity among Trump’s base of support, has long been friendly with Trump and was briefly considered to be his running mate. But her involvement in Trump’s debate preparation, which has not previously been reported, was partly because of her own performance in a 2019 Democratic presidential primary debate, when Gabbard eviscerated Harris in a memorable onstage encounter.

In an email, Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump, confirmed Gabbard’s involvement.

Leavitt said the former president has “proven to be one of the best debaters in political history as evidenced by his knockout blow to Joe Biden. He does not need traditional debate prep but will continue to meet with respected policy advisers and effective communicators like Tulsi Gabbard, who successfully dominated Kamala Harris on the debate stage in 2020.”

Trump likes to say he doesn’t need to prepare for debates, and his team is under instructions to use the term “policy time” to describe their sessions. But Trump has spent more time this year practicing for debates than he did in either 2016 or 2020, according to advisers who have worked with him.

His first debate against Biden in 2020 was disastrous for Trump, who came off as overbearing.

He still doesn’t do traditional debate prep. Nobody played Biden in his sessions before their CNN debate June 27. Instead, he sat with advisers for blocks of time or informally on plane trips and discussed potential topics and lines of questioning. In more formal sessions at Mar-a-Lago, aides have sat in chairs opposite him, playing the role of moderators.

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida asked especially combative questions, according to a person who was in the room. Other lawmakers, including his eventual running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, have also spent time with Trump on policy topics.

Biden’s halting and disjointed performance in his June debate with Trump ultimately led him to drop out of the race. Trump’s aides are expected to handle preparations similarly for his debate with Harris, scheduled for Sept. 10.

Gabbard brings some key qualities to the role for Trump: She’s a woman, at a moment when Trump is for a second time facing a woman as his general election rival; she’s a former House member, giving her policy experience; and, perhaps most importantly for Trump, she has been on a debate stage with Harris and delivered a stinging attack against her record as a prosecutor.

Gabbard’s attacks in that July 2019 debate, however, all came from the left.

Gabbard said during that debate that Harris, when she was a district attorney in San Francisco, “put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.”

She also accused Harris of having obstructed evidence that could have let an innocent man leave death row, doing so only when a court “forced her to.”

Harris replied that she was “proud of making a decision to not just give fancy speeches, or be in a legislative body and give speeches on the floor, but actually doing the work.” After the debate, Harris mocked Gabbard’s low standing in the polls.

Harris dropped out of that race in December 2019, and Gabbard did so months later, in March 2020.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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