Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) doubled down Thursday on her targeted attack against fellow 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) in a post-debate interview with Cheddar.
"This is nothing personal. Voters deserve to know the truth," Gabbard told Cheddar Thursday. "But it speaks to the fact that her presidential campaign, and the rhetoric that you hear, is a lie."
On night two of the Democratic presidential debate in Detroit, Gabbard unleashed an unexpected attack on Harris over her handling of criminal justice policies, like the death penalty and marijuana justice, when she served as attorney general of California.
"I'm deeply concerned about this record," Gabbard said Wednesday at the debate. "She put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations, and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana."
The Hawaii Congresswoman was addressing Harris's February interview with The Breakfast Club where she admitted to smoking pot herself, saying "I did inhale," jokingly.
During the fiery exchange on the debate state, Gabbard added: "She blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so. She kept people in prisons beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California."
In an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper after the debate, Harris reacted to Gabbard's comments, saying, as a "top-tier candidate," she expected hits "especially when some people are at zero or 1 percent, whatever she might be at," referring to Gabbard's poll numbers.
But Harris took a bigger dig at Gabbard's controversial past: "This coming from someone who has been an apologist for an individual, Assad, who has murdered the people of his, you know, of his country like cockroaches. She who has embraced and been an apologist, in a way, to refuse to call him a war criminal."
Harris was referencing Gabbard's "fact-finding" mission in early 2017 when she met with Syrian President Bashad al-Assad, an authoritarian leader who is widely considered a war criminal.
Gabbard said Harris's post-debate target was a "cheap smear," adding, "This is pathetic."
"Why doesn't she counter with something that defends the record that she claims to be so proud of?" the congresswoman asked. "Instead she's throwing out and lobbying cheap smears, and I think that it's a disservice to voters. They deserve better. They deserve to hear the truth."
According to Google Trends, Tulsi Gabbard was the most Googled presidential candidate on night two of the democratic debates in all 50 states. Nevertheless, the next debate has new criteria to qualify, and Gabbard is running out of time.
She is one of only three presidential candidates who are U.S. veterans (Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Seth Moulton have both served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, respectively), and on Wednesday, she promised a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan within her first year as Commander-in-Chief.
She told Cheddar that during the August congressional recess, amid her ongoing presidential campaign, she will be on a two-week annual National Guard training mission in Indonesia with servicemembers of Hawaii.
"As a soldier, I will never apologize for doing all that I can to prevent leaders in our country from waging more costly, destructive, regime-change wars the likes of which we have seen in Iraq, and Libya, and Syria," she later said.
Many U.S. consumers say they’ve noticed higher than usual prices for holiday gifts in recent months, according to a a December poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A contributing factor is the unusually high import taxes the Trump administration put on foreign goods. While the worst-case consumer impact that many economists foresaw from the administration’s trade policies hasn’t materialized, some popular gift items have been affected more than others. Most toys and electronics sold in the U.S. come from China. So do most holiday decorations. Jewelry prices have risen due to the cost of gold.
Serbia’s prosecutor for organized crime has charged a government minister and three others with abuse of position and falsifying of documents related to a luxury real estate project linked to U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The charges came on Monday. The investigation centers on a controversy over a a bombed-out military complex in central Belgrade that was a protected cultural heritage zone but that is facing redevelopment as a luxury compound by a company linked to Kushner. The $500 million proposal to build a high-rise hotel, offices and shops at the site has met fierce opposition from experts at home and abroad. Selakovic and others allegedly illegally lifted the protection status for the site by falsifying documentation.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to block states from regulating artificial intelligence. He argues that heavy regulations could stifle the industry, especially given competition from China. Trump says the U.S. needs a unified approach to AI regulation to avoid complications from state-by-state rules. The order directs the administration to draw up a list of problematic regulations for the Attorney General to challenge. States with laws could lose access to broadband funding, according to the text of the order. Some states have already passed AI laws focusing on transparency and limiting data collection.
The New York Times and President Donald Trump are fighting again. The news outlet said Wednesday it won't be deterred by Trump's “false and inflammatory language” from writing about the 79-year-old president's health. The Times has done a handful of stories on that topic recently, including an opinion column that said Trump is “starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.” In a Truth Social post, Trump said it might be treasonous for outlets like the Times to do “FAKE” reports about his health and "we should do something about it.” The Republican president already has a pending lawsuit against the newspaper for its past reports on his finances.
President Donald Trump says he will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. Trump said Monday on his social media site that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping and “President Xi responded positively!” There had been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips into China as it could help them to compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities. But there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
House Republicans in key battleground districts are working to contain the political fallout expected when thousands of their constituents face higher bills for health insurance coverage obtained through the Affordable Care Act. For a critical sliver of the GOP majority, the impending expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits after Dec. 31 could be a major political liability as they potentially face midterm headwinds in a 2026 election critical to President Donald Trump’s agenda. For Democrats, the party’s strategy for capturing the House majority revolves around pinning higher bills for groceries, health insurance and utilities on Republicans.
