Washington DC, August 17:
The New York Times cited two people familiar with Trump's agenda as saying that he has recruited Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman, to help him hone his assaults in preparation for his debate with US Vice President Kamala Harris. She tagged along to Trump's Mar-a-Lago practice session, where the president has his own club and residence. On September 10, the discussion between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will be broadcasted by ABC News.
After her 2020 presidential campaign, Gabbard reinvented herself as a superstar among Trump's base of support, leaving the Democratic Party. She has been friendly with Trump for a long time and was rumored to be his running mate for a while.
Part of the reason Garbbard helped Trump get ready for the debates was her own performance in the 2019 Democratic presidential primary, when she had a famous onstage confrontation with Harris and eviscerated her. The involvement of Gabbard was confirmed in an email by Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, according to NYT.
As Leavitt pointed out, the former president's decisive victory over Joe Biden in their discussion proved that he was one of the greatest political debaters of all time. He will keep meeting with renowned policy advisors and master communicators like Tulsi Gabbard, who defeated Kamala Harris in the 2020 debate, but he will not require conventional debate preparation.
According to advisers who have worked with Trump, the former president has spent more time this year practicing for debates than in either 2016 or 2020, even though Trump claims he "doesn't need to" prepare. This information was published by the New York Times.
Even now, he hasn't gotten around to doing the conventional debating stuff. Prior to their June 27th debate on CNN, no one played Mr. Biden in his sessions. Before his June CNN debate with Biden, Trump met with advisors for long periods of time or casually on aircraft rides to go over possible debate subjects and questions. At more official gatherings at Mar-a-Lago, his assistants have taken turns sitting across from him and acting as moderators.
According to an observer, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz posed particularly aggressive questioning. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, who would later become his running mate, is just one of several lawmakers who have met with Trump to discuss policy.
After giving a shaky and incoherent performance in the June debate against Trump, Biden decided to withdraw from the race. According to NYT, Trump's campaign staff will reportedly use a similar procedure in getting ready for the September 10 debate with Harris.
In particular, Gabbard contributes important traits to Trump's position: She has a number of advantages over Trump, including being a woman at a time when Trump is facing a female opponent in his general election, having served in the House before, which gives her policy expertise, and, most importantly, having debated Harris, where she criticized her record as a prosecutor, according to the New York Times.
But in the July 2019 debate, Gabbard was the only one from the left to criticize Harris. Allegedly, while Harris was serving as the district attorney for San Francisco, she "put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when asked if she ever smoked marijuana."
Additionally, she claimed that Harris had withheld evidence that may have freed an innocent man from death row, which she had withheld until a court "forced her to."
In contrast, Harris responded by saying 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." Harris made fun of Gabbard's dismal poll numbers after the debate. Harris eventually withdrew from the campaign in December 2019, and Gabbard did the same in March 2020, a few months after Harris.
