In case you were somehow impressed by Tulsi Gabbard in these debates

[nbsmom]

I'm not loving how CNN turned the candidates against each other, and turned the debates into a MMA shit show.

It wasn't shocking to see Tomi Lahren take swipes at Kamala Harris on Twitter. Because that's totally on brand.

But I found it particularly disgusting how Gabbard used her time to direct GOP-framed opposition research at Kamala on stage.

I'm not telling anyone how to vote, but when you're just amplifying the CNN/GOP framing, you're making it plausible that BLOTUS will be re-elected.

SO PLEASE, for the good of everyone in this country, do your research.

Between being late-to-the LGBTQ-tolerance-party, Trump's consideration of her for his cabinet, being BFFs with Assad, Tulsi is just sketchy AF.

Fingers crossed that this round of debates is the last time we see Delaney and Williamson and Gabbard. But especially Gabbard.

[qazplm135]

1. Meh Harris will be fine.

Gabbard swung but ultimately she's out here soon and Harris will move on to the next level when the debates actually matter and people are actually paying attention.

I will say it again, attacks like these actually strengthen a good candidate. Harris needs to beef up her response to her time as AG. This will help her do that.

[crazytown]

4. If Tulsi is on the next debate stage, Harris will take her head off.

Gabbard has a lot of skeletons in the garden.

[qazplm135]

7. She's small time

I wouldn't waste my time with her, but yeah pick one or two and have it ready if she comes for her again.

[crazytown]

13. "if she comes for her again"

Sorry. That is what I meant.

[StarfishSaver]

17. As my grandmother would say, "Kamala ain't studying her"

Link to tweet

[Cha]

34. lol@.. ".. and she likes Assad.. "

[Zambero]

78. Tulsi "Fine people on both sides" Gabbard

ISIS perpetrates genocide as well, and Russia stirs up the pot in order to prop up Assad. It's reassuring to know that this ongoing human tragedy is being played out with the unflinching support of such "GREAT" folks!

[Hortensis]

52. :) Agree with you and Gazplm. Kamala ain't studying

those on their way out without any help from her.

[Hekate]

40. That will be fun to watch

I'm not liking Tulsi too much.

[Apple Fritter]

5. I agree with this statement. I mean these are small things that can be easily defeated

If she confronts them head on and explains them. I feels she's a natural at debate and meticulous. She just needs to start building some defense~

[Amishman]

73. Yup, better Harris has to address this now while there is a lot less attention

Have solid responses and make it old news long before the larger electorate really starts paying attention

[qazplm135]

75. Same for all candidates

People need to relax about attacks now. Not a lot are paying attention and attacks help you strengthen your response for later when more are watching or the GE.

Whether you are Harris or Biden or any of the top choices.

[Claritie Pixie]

2. Great post and totally agree.

[Apple Fritter]

3. Okay well,

You could also say Gabbard brought up Harris's record and her past just as Harris Brought up Biden's. GOP was going to bring this up even if no other candidates did and if they didn't bring it up now her response would have been tonight's response.

[Thekaspervote]

9. Correct! She look gut punched.. kinda like Biden did when she was doing the punching

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

28. Yes, and had no response... not a good night for Kamala.

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[customerserviceguy]

10. Exactly

Harris punched up to Biden the previous debate, now Gabbard is doing the same thing. It's all fair.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

31. What's fair is fair.

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[Beringia]

60. I thought it was great someone did Biden's work for him

Gabbard did to Harris what Harris did to Biden, except this is more recent history for Harris and not ancient history. Harris can't possibly attack 2 people at once, or play victim a 2nd time.

[bearsfootball516]

77. She'll probably be ready next time.

When Biden faced the same attacks as he did in the first debate, he was ready this time. Kamala will be on the stage in September, I don’t know if Gabbard will make the 2 percent/135,000 donors mark. But either way, Harris now has a month and a half to prepare a response for the attacks Gabbard brought, which will surely reappear in the next debate.

I’m not even a big Harris fan, but it’s better for her to get hit with that attack now, when it’s early and she has time to bounce back.

If that attack happened in a 3-person debate next March when it’s down to Biden, Warren and herself, it could have been a campaign-ender. Instead, she can formulate a response and be ready when it comes at her in the September debate

[frazzled]

16. I think she needs to tell the truth

about her (unauthorized) meeting 2 years ago with the butcher-tyrant Assad, in which she defended his genocidal regime. Would you want someone like that in charge of the nation’s foreign policy?

Coddling dictators is the current occupant’s bailiwick. We don’t need that from a Democrat, much less one who judged it okay to defend a dictator responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths.

[yellowdogintexas]

41. as Chris Levoi says on the Stephanie Miller show

#NotYouTulsi

[jcgoldie]

18. Everyone remembers her attack on Harris

Seem to forget her "both sides" response to the next question in which she blamed democrats and republicans equally. That was much more in character for Tulsi.

[sharedvalues]

54. Yes. And Tulsi was raised in a Hindu cult

Also
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/05/tulsi-gabbard-president-sanders-democratic-party

But Gabbard’s almost singular focus on the damage these wars inflict domestically, and her comparative lack of focus on the carnage they wreak in the countries under attack, is troubling. It is nationalism in antiwar garb, reinforcing instead of undercutting the toxic rhetoric that treats foreigners as less deserving of dignity than Americans. (Gabbard’s brand of anti-interventionism has even received praise from former KKK grand wizard David Duke, who called for her to be named secretary of state.)

And it still produces its fair share of bloodshed. Like campaign-era Trump, Gabbard may be against miring the United States in blunderous, short-sighted conflicts that backfire, but she’s more than willing to use America’s military might to go after suspected terrorists around the world (and inevitably kill and maim civilians in the process). In the same Truthout interview, responding to a question about drones, Gabbard said that “there is a place for the use of this technology, as well as smaller, quick-strike special force teams versus tens, if not hundreds of thousands of soldiers occupying space within a country.”

It’s a point she’s repeated again and again. Responding to questions from Honolulu Civil Beat in 2012, Gabbard said that “the best way to defeat the terrorists is through strategically placed, small quick-strike special forces and drones — the strategy that took out Osama Bin Laden.” She told Fox in 2014

[nbsmom]

20. I'm honored that your reply is one of your first posts here.

Really, you shouldn't have.

[Cha]

44. lol

[PatSeg]

89. Some people don't even try to be subtle

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

29. The deflection was obvious... and understandable.

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[dalton99a]

8. Tulsi did a good job reading from notes prepared for her

[Cha]

45. ouch.

[BannonsLiver]

11. She's a regular on Tucker Carlson's show

That’s enough for me. The Assad love, the homophobic cult she was in and the vicious Obama slurs she’s engaged in should be enough for everyone who is a real Dem.

[DesertRat]

19. +1

[SunSeeker]

35. +2

[Cha]

46. omg.. tucker regular? smh.

[uponit7771]

55. You'll have to prove that, that's a serious accusation ... very serious.

[BannonsLiver]

79. That she goes on tucker carlson's Show?

A very “serious” accusation.

“I’ll HAVE to prove it.”

That she bashed Obama, and loves Assad and grew up in a homophobic cult?

All that stuffs out there, friend. Do try and keep up. That you apparently are completely aware of all of this doesn’t exactly speak well of your knowledge of the candidates or past history.

[uponit7771]

82. Hyperbole, Most dem politico's don't look at TC's show ... your claim is she's a "regular"

... on TC's show, that's bad for her IMHO.

No dem should be a regular on that hate fest

[mcar]

59. This

[ecstatic]

12. I agree with you on Delaney and Gabbard. But what did Williamson do

to get lumped in with them? lol.

[RhodeIslandOne]

48. She tried to dismiss everyone else on stage with her as political hacks

Taking big corporate money and all looking for a payday. She just implied a couple times the Democratic party was flat out slimy.

[JoeOtterbein]

14. plus a googleplex! On this"

"...disgusting how Gabbard used her time to direct GOP-framed opposition research at Kamala on stage."

[OilemFirchen]

15. Who said it?

Donald Trump won this election because far too many people in this country felt like they'd been left behind by both political parties, by self serving politicians on both sides who are more interested in partisan politics than they are in actually fighting for the people.

Hint: For the first time since, like, last week, it was not Senator Bernard Sanders.

Transcript of second Democratic debate night 2 - The Washington Post

[OilemFirchen]

25. A hearty welcome to Democratic Underground!

Your novel and insightful observations sure do give one pause!

Here. Have a tomato.

[OilemFirchen]

30. You're new here, I see.

Here. Pull up a chair:

[SunSeeker]

36. LOL

[Cha]

47. lol

[brush]

53. Ok, who said it? There's a paywall at the link.

[OilemFirchen]

64. Rep. Gabbard, last night. (n/t)

[Spider Jerusalem]

22. Not impressed with Gabbard as a candidate, at all

but she did a useful thing tearing into Harris on the basis of her (shitty) record as California AG.

[SunSeeker]

37. Harris was a great CA Attorney General. What are you talking about?

She got billions for CA homeowners after the foreclosure crisis. She fought for our environment. She enforced important gun, consumer and child trafficking laws.

[Spider Jerusalem]

39. She also sent parents of truant children to jail when she was SF District Attorney.

And then as AG she had things like this:

Harris’s office fought to release fewer prisoners, even after the US Supreme Court found that overcrowding in California prisons was so bad that it amounted to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.

And this:

In one case, her office argued against Daniel Larsen, who was proven innocent by the Innocence Project, because, Harris’s office claimed, he filed his petition for release far too late after a legal deadline. The court disagreed, allowing Larsen’s release in 2013.

And this:

Harris also overlooked and defended law enforcement officials accused of misconduct. In one such case, a state prosecutor, Robert Murray, falsified a confession, using it to threaten the defendant with life in prison. After a court threw out the indictment, Harris’s office appealed it, dismissing the misconduct because it did not involve physical violence.

Harris also resisted some attempts to hold police accountable for shootings, including a bill that would have required the attorney general’s office to investigate killings by police and efforts to create statewide standards for police-worn body cameras. She also defied calls to have her office quickly investigate certain police shootings in California.

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/1/23/18184192/kamala-harris-president-campaign-criminal-justice-record

I see a lot there to disagree with, personally. (Not all of us have flexible principles, I guess.)

[deurbano]

42. I live in SF. She didn't send anyone to jail for truancy when she was DA here. Apparently,

at least 2 parents in more conservative CA counties were jailed by those implementing the state law in a more aggressive way, but that wasn't the situation here. And after reading the whole Vox article, I see you only selected excerpts that fit your narrative. I assumed this was a hit piece until I actually read it. While I don't completely agree with the writer's perspective (or maybe tone), he treats her history as DA and Attorney General much more even-handedly (and gives her much more credit) than your excerpts would suggest.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/2/27/1838190/-How-Many-Parents-Served-Jail-Time-Under-Kamala-Harris-Decade-Old-Anti-Truancy-Program-ZERO

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/kamala-harris-2020-election-interview-861340/

[SunSeeker]

43. No she did not. She sent letters telling what the potential punishment is.

Read your own Vox link. Despite it being an anti-Harris hit piece, it only says those letters amounted to a "threat." She was not out rounding up parents of truants and putting them in jail as SF DA. She was trying to spur these parents to get their kids back in school--their kid's only hope for a decent future. And as noted at your link, she was ahead of the country on criminal justice issues — such as when she implemented prison diversion programs as district attorney and a “first-of-its-kind” racial bias training for police officers.

Once she came to the California Attorney General's Office, her role changed. As the state's lawyer, the AG is required to defend the state, its agencies and employees when they get sued. The AG's office does that and must do that by law. It defends and represents the Department of Corrections, California Highway Patrol officers, etc. In some pretty ugly cases. She didn't pick these cases. They came to the office because someone sued the state and the cases were litigated by line deputies, as they were required to do as state attorneys.

Your reference to these cases is an unfair attack on Harris. It's like attributing what a defendant did to the public defender. The public defender is just doing her job zealously defending her client, as she is expected to do under the rules of professional responsibility for lawyers.

Rather than showing Harris has "flexible principles," it shows she is a competent executive of a 1,000+-attorney law office, namely the California Attorney General's office, that ran smoothly under her tenure. She was a very popular AG, both by the people in the office, and the public.

I've met Harris and found her quite warm, caring and dedicated to public service. Gabbard trying to paint Harris as an over-the-top tough on crime right wing zealot was wrong. Even Gabbard did not believe it. Gabbard had to read her smear from a cue card at the podium. LOL

[uponit7771]

56. RWTP, please don't repeat them about dem candidates

[Polybius]

71. She was a big supporter of San Francisco Proposition H (2005)

It was blatantly illegal and got struck down. That could hurt her nationally.

[BannonsLiver]

80. Wow, an actual DeBlasio supporter.

I thought they were but a myth.

[SunSeeker]

86. LOL

[metroins]

27. I just donated to Tulsi

And Julian Castro.

I liked both

[SunSeeker]

49. What endears Tulsi to you? Her support of Assad? Her blocking Syrian refugees from the US?

Gabbard, one of the party’s sitting lawmakers in Congress, announced that she had met with Bashar al-Assad during a trip to war-torn Syria and dismissed his entire opposition as “terrorists”.
...
Pelosi told reporters on Wednesday that she had no knowledge of Gabbard’s unannounced trip, which drew scrutiny over who arranged and paid for the travel.
...
Gabbard said her trip to the region was born from “the suffering of the Syrian people that has been weighing heavily on my heart.”

But in 2015, she was one of just 47 Democrats who sided with Republicans and backed a GOP-sponsored measure that would essentially block Syrian and Iraqi refugees from resettling in the US. Gabbard was also a vocal critic of the Obama administration – which repeatedly called for Assad to step down – for arming Syrian rebel groups.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/26/tulsi-gabbard-bashar-al-assad-syria-democrats

Link to tweet

I am sure her support of Assad endears her to Putin.

[metroins]

57. She volunteered for War

Tulsi volunteered to serve our country and is a Major. Smearing her name is unpatriotic.

Also Syrian refugees is not an issue I care about. Her position on them could be just about anything. I just don't care about something that doesn't impact my life.

[Beringia]

61. You don't care if it doesn't impact you?? Isn't that a very republican trait?

[metroins]

62. It's a personal trait.

I'm not going to clutch my pearls because a Major in the army and congresswoman met with Assad.

She wants to bring troops home, provide public and private healthcare as well as beat Donald Trump.

Those are things I care about.

[Claritie Pixie]

65. How sweet, defending Assad and Tulsi's cozying up to him.

And no, she's not qualified to be prez because she was a major in the army. It certainly doesn't make her a foreign policy expert as she wants us to think she is.

Tulsi talked for 10 minutes last night and said nothing of substance. Then she fear-mongered about nuclear war in her closing.

Vehement defense of her past questionable actions is curious indeed.

[metroins]

68. Tulsi is making her case

And I like it.

You are the questionable one. I've been on this site for 6 years and am supporting a Democrat I like.

[Claritie Pixie]

70. What case?

Go.

[Claritie Pixie]

66. Whoa! Smearing her name is unpatriotic?

That statement is rather odd, and rather black and white. Nope nope nope.

[metroins]

67. Yup yup

[nini]

76. She's also homophobic and lots of other fun stuff

IF you don't care about Syrian refugees then you probably would love Tulsi - disgusting.

[Skittles]

87. LOL, smearing her name is unpatriotic?

I'm a veteran and I DISAGREE

this is legitimate vetting of candidates

[treestar]

74. does meeting him equal support?

sounds a bit like the Jane Fonda dustup.

[SunSeeker]

85. Lying for him does, like her implication that all the Syrian people support him. nt

[Martin Eden]

88. Gabbard had the best response on the TPP

She deserves credit for that, if nothing else.

Personally, I was most impressed by Inslee.

[Qutzupalotl]

33. Someone is gaming search results for Gabbard

to try to artificially boost her “buzz:”

Link to tweet

[SunSeeker]

38. Scary as fuck. nt

[secondwind]

50. I agree with you on the sketchy part.

[JustAnotherGen]

51. Add in DeBlasio

He can either be a candidate or a moderator - he doesn't get to do both.

[mcar]

58. Kick

[IronLionZion]

69. Tulsi is the GOP's favorite Democrat

but I disagree with the basic premise here. I think it's a great time for our party to hash it out over policy differences and records. Then next year can be spent unifying our party to take down Trump. Every candidate is going to have stuff we don't like, and it's best to deal with that now than later.

[PunkinPi]

72. K&R

[Devil Child]

83. I was impressed before and even more impressed following Rep. Gabbard's exceptional showing

I have done my research. That is why I am voting for Rep. Gabbard.

[Claritie Pixie]

91. Explain why. You say you've done your research so please share.

What makes you so impressed by her?

[thesquanderer]

84. re: "Tulsi is just sketchy AF"

Between being late-to-the LGBTQ-tolerance-party, Trump's consideration of her for his cabinet, being BFFs with Assad, Tulsi is just sketchy AF.

Late to the tolerance party doesn't matter, what matters in that respect is where she says she is today. I mean, where was Obama on gay marriage before 2012? And if by some chance she got in, even if you doubt her sincerity, I don't envision her reversing herself and resorting to positions contrary to those that helped get her elected and would help get her re-elected.

I don't care about the cabinet thing, either. Some say she was being considered, she claims she didn't know she was being vetted for an offer, both could conceivably be true, but moreover, it doesn't matter. Trump hadn't even been sworn in yet. There was still some hope that he wouldn't be as bad as so many feared. There was talk among Dems of trying to find areas of common ground. There were actually some reasonable appointments (all since departed, of course). It was not inherently evil to have had any such meeting, whether it was known to be part of a vetting or not.

The Asaad thing is the only one you mentioned that I could see as problematic.

I'm not supporting her, but I'd take her over lots of other candidates. In part because I think she could beat Trump. I posted about that at post #36 in this other thread.

[yardwork]

90. Gabbard's views on gay people were far more negative than Obama's.

Gabbard was in favor of torturing gay people, ie., "conversion therapy" until very recently. Gabbard expressed extremely homophobic views while she was an elected official.

In my opinion, Gabbard's homophobia is so intense and deeply rooted, her more tolerant recent statements are suspect. I think she hates and fears gay people like me, and is only pretending otherwise.

Obama has never, as far as I know, supported "conversion therapy" or said hateful things about gay people. He was opposed to equal marriage but famously "evolved" during his first term. He lit up the White House in a rainbow flag the night of the Obergefell decision making equal marriage the law of the land.

There is no comparison.