Donald Trump’s presidential marketing campaign has obtained an official endorsement from former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination however later distanced herself from the get together.
Trump welcomed Ms. Gabbard, 43, to a stage in Detroit, Michigan, a key swing state, on Monday.
Ms. Gabbard stop the Democratic Occasion in 2022, complaining of its “wokeness,” and has since grow to be a frequent and outspoken visitor on Fox Information.
In the meantime, greater than 200 Republicans who served beneath earlier presidents and get together leaders have endorsed Trump’s rival, Kamala Harris.
Former employees of George H.W. Bush and Sens. John McCain and Mitt Romney stated in an open letter that one other Trump administration would endanger the USA of democracy.
Ms. Gabbard appeared with Trump to commemorate American service members killed in an assault in Afghanistan three years in the past and used it as a chance to criticize the Biden administration.
A suicide bombing at Kabul’s Karzai Worldwide Airport killed 13 U.S. service members and greater than 100 Afghans.
The incident comes as U.S. troops withdraw from the nation in chaos and the Taliban return to energy.
Trump known as it a “shame” that “triggered a collapse of American credibility and respect around the globe.”
Earlier within the day, Ms. Gabbard, a veteran, joined him at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia to honor fallen People.
Ms. Gabbard was a frequent critic of U.S. army interventionism throughout her congressional profession from 2013 to 2021.
Talking at an occasion in Michigan on Monday, Ms. Gabbard stated she known as on Democrats, Republicans and independents to decide on Trump on the poll field in November, saying it was “a approach to save our nation and serve the folks.” ” query.
Her official endorsement of Trump marks the end result of a outstanding political journey that started on the progressive left wing of the Democratic Occasion over the previous decade.
She was the primary Hindu member of the U.S. Congress and later served as vice chair of the Democratic Nationwide Committee earlier than resigning to assist Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential marketing campaign.
Ms. Gabbard ran for president in 2020, supporting liberal points akin to government-run well being care, free faculty tuition and gun management.
However Joe Biden grew to become the Democratic nominee that 12 months and in the end gained the presidency. Two years later, Ms. Gabbard stop the Democratic Occasion, saying the get together had succumbed to a “cowardly awakening.”
By early 2024, she was singing the praises of Biden’s rival, Trump, who will this time compete with Harris for the White Home.
She warned of rising threats to American democracy, saying the hazard was brought on by the American left suing Trump.
Within the months that adopted, there was even hypothesis that Ms Gabbard might grow to be Mr Trump’s potential working mate in November – a task that in the end fell to JD Vance.
After leaving the Democratic Occasion, she grew to become an everyday contributor to Fox Information and was accused by Ukrainian officers of spreading “Russian propaganda.”
Gabbard’s feedback got here days after Trump secured an endorsement from one other Democratic defector, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who final week suspended his impartial marketing campaign for the White Home.
High Democrats have been fast to dismiss Ms. Gabbard’s assist.
“As an alternative of specializing in successful over hard-working People, Trump is extra centered on successful over extremists like Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who’re doing nothing however crush him,” the get together’s speedy response director stated. Nothing might be completed outdoors of the sinking marketing campaign.
