Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) on Tuesday announced the suspension of her presidential campaign – a development that brought her past political rumbles with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) back to the forefront.
Harris once held a top-tier status, but it quickly diminished after Gabbard challenged the California senator’s prosecutorial record during July’s Democrat debate – a moment that now lives in infamy.
Here are some of the best Tulsi v. Harris moments.
1. Gabbard challenged Harris’s prosecutorial record: Gabbard took aim at Harris’s controversial prosecutorial record – particularly over her handling of marijuana violations – during July’s Democrat debate and mentioned the fact that Harris “laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.”
“Senator Harris says she’s proud of her record as a prosecutor, and that she’ll be a prosecutor president, but I’m deeply concerned about this record,” Gabbard said.
“There are too many examples to cite, but she put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana,” she continued.
“She blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so,” Gabbard added, noting that Harris “kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California and she fought to keep the cash-bail system in place”:
2. Harris smugly mocked Gabbard’s standing in the polls: Harris spoke to Anderson Cooper following Gabbard’s challenge in the July debate and bragged about her status as a “top tier candidate.”
“This is going to sound immodest, but I’m obviously a top tier candidate, and so, I did expect that I would be on the stage and take hits tonight because there are a lot of people that are trying to make the stage for the next debate,” Harris told Cooper.
“Especially when people are at zero or one percent or whatever she might be at, and so, I did expect that I might take hits tonight,” she added:
3. The Harris campaign blamed the Russians for Gabbard’s masterful takedown of Harris’s prosecutorial record: Harris’s press secretary, Ian Sams, reacted to Gabbard’s attack by tweeting an NBC article suggesting that the Russians were trying to infiltrate the election by propping up Gabbard:
4. Gabbard called Harris’s attacks “pathetic” and “cheap”: Gabbard responded to Harris’s ongoing excuses, telling the Hill’s Rising, that it was “pathetic” that Harris had reacted to the facts Gabbard presented with “cheap smears.”
She said:
Honestly, it’s pathetic that when confronted with the facts and the truth about her record that she claims to be proud of, as a prosecutor and as attorney general of California, all she can do is lob cheap smears. The American people deserve better than this, especially when her whole campaign is predicated on being a champion for the people, being a champion for black and brown people in this country, who have been on the brunt end of racial injustice and an unjust criminal system for too long. This is all a lie, because when she was in a position to do something about it, when she was in a position to make a difference and truly be a champion for the people, she furthered and perpetuated this unfair, unjust system that harmed many black and brown people in the state of Californa.
5. Gabbard dunked on Democrat candidates, including Harris, during the November debate: Gabbard addressed the “rot” in the Democrat party during November’s debate and admitted that the party is “influenced by the foreign policy establishment in Washington represented by Hillary Clinton and others’ foreign policy, by the military industrial complex and other greedy corporate interests.” Like Harris, Clinton also has fueled rumors of the Russians backing Gabbard.
6. Enraged Harris snapped at Gabbard for criticizing Obama: During the same debate, Harris snapped at Gabbard, accusing her of spending “four years full-time on Fox News criticizing President Obama, spent full-time criticizing people on this stage as affiliated with the Democratic Party.”
Gabbard said Harris was “trafficking in lies, and smears, and innuendos because she cannot challenge the substance of the argument that I’m making, the leadership and the change that I’m seeking to bring in our foreign policy”:
Across the board, social media users are deeming Harris’s early departure a victory for Gabbard:
Despite their strained history, Gabbard sent her “best wishes” to Harris following the announcement.
“Sending my best wishes to @KamalaHarris, her family & supporters who have campaigned so hard,” Gabbard wrote. “While we disagree on some issues, we agree on others & I respect her sincere desire to serve the American people.”
“I look forward to working together on the challenges we face as a nation,” she added:
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