Rep. Tulsi Gabbard won’t be on the Iowa debate stage, but she’s looking to weigh in on Iran.
The Hawaii congresswoman, 38, will appear alongside former Rep. Dennis Kucinich, 73, at an event in New Hampshire to discuss the Trump administration’s Iran policy. Kucinich, once on the vanguard of the far-left of his party, endorsed Gabbard’s 2020 Democratic presidential campaign last December.
The pair will address “the false narratives that have propelled a failed interventionist policy in the Middle East,” according to Gabbard’s camp.
Kucinich, a former Cleveland mayor who represented Northeast Ohio in the House from 1997 to 2013, unsuccessfully ran for the White House twice before losing a gubernatorial bid. Kucinich has long championed nonintervention foreign policy, once calling war “a profitable racket.”
Gabbard, who is selling “No War With Iran” T-shirts as part of her official merchandise, has ripped President Trump for breaking his 2016 promise of withdrawing troops from the region.
“I’m out on the campaign trail and hearing from a lot of people who had voted for Trump largely because of this issue, and their concern about how, rather than ending stupid wars and bringing our troops home, what they’re seeing is more of our troops being deployed to the Middle East,” she said.
Gabbard’s no-holds-barred approach to the primary debates will likely be missed by pundits hoping for fireworks between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The two clashed this week after the Massachusetts senator claimed her Senate colleague from Vermont told her in 2018 a woman couldn’t win the White House. Sanders has denied the story. Both teams are seeking to de-escalate tensions between their respective supporters.
“I also met with @BernieSanders before announcing my candidacy. We had a nice one-on-one conversation, and I informed him that I would be running for President,” Gabbard tweeted. “In that meeting, he showed me the greatest respect and encouragement, just as he always has.”
Gabbard, who last appeared on November’s debate stage, enjoyed spikes in fundraising and search traffic after taking on Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan and California Sen. Kamala Harris during previous rounds.
