Former Democrat lawmaker endorses Trump for US president

Tulsi Gabbard has been listed among the leading Republican candidate’s possible running mates

Former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) speaks at the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, February 22, 2024. © Global Look Press / Ron Sachs / CNP

Former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii has denounced her former party as enemies of democracy driven by a lust for power, while praising the Republican favorite for the presidential nomination, Donald Trump.

Gabbard was once the vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee, but resigned in 2016 to protest the “rigging” of the party primaries against Bernie Sanders and in favor of Hillary Clinton. On Thursday, she spoke at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), held just outside the US capital.

In her speech, Gabbard denounced the “Democrat elite and the swamp creatures in Washington” as having no respect for Americans and their rights, and being “driven by their insatiable hunger for power.”

Democrats claim that Trump will “destroy our democracy” if elected, she argued.

“They say he will be the dictator-in-chief, that if he’s elected it will be the last election this country sees. It’s laughable. This is so crazy, it’s laughable. They’re justifying their actions by telling themselves that they need to destroy our democracy in order to save it. It’s lunacy and it’s the mindset and mentality of dictators,”said Gabbard. “They are waging a multi-front battle and they will stop at nothing until they’re successful.”

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She praised Trump as “a fighter” whose strength and resilience come from “a sincere love and concern for the future of our country and his care for the American people.” Meanwhile, President Joe Biden, whom she endorsed in 2020, would “crumble” under a fraction of the pressure and attacks currently directed against Trump, she said.

Gabbard denounced attempts by multiple US states to take Trump off the ballot, as well as prosecutions intended to convict him of anything ahead of the November vote. The most recent judgment against Trump’s business in New York, she said, was “very clearly a politically motivated hit job.”

The speech “sounded like an audition for the vice-presidency,”according to the Guardian, which disapproved of Gabbard’s message. The British outlet noted that she was met with “a standing ovation and cheers” and “notably more enthusiasm” than former British PM Liz Truss, who also addressed the gathering.

Trump is seeking a rematch with Biden, who officially won the 2020 election with the most votes in US history. Earlier this week, he reportedly mentioned Gabbard as a possible running mate.

The 42-year-old lieutenant-colonel in the US Army Reserve served in the House of Representatives from 2013 to 2021. She left the Democrats in 2022, denouncing them as elitist warmongers driven by “cowardly wokeness” who sought to divide Americans by “racializing every issue.”