CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Tulsi Gabbard sidestepped her clash with Hillary Clinton, striking a more conciliatory tone at a presidential forum in Iowa.
The Hawaii representative on Sunday warned of “increasingly divided times” defined by “hatred, divisiveness, and bigotry,” “much of it coming” from President Trump.
“At times like these, I think it’s so important for us to get back to our roots, to get back to our foundation, to really look at what binds us all together as Americans to defeat this darkness with light, to defeat this hate with love,” Gabbard, 38, told Linn County Democrats in Cedar Rapids. “What could be more patriotic than working together, raising our voices to take our government back out of the hands of the rich and powerful in the special interest?”
Gabbard’s tenor contrasts with her pugnacious response to Clinton’s claim that Russia was “grooming her to be the third-party candidate” that spoils the 2020 election in favor of Trump.
“Great! Thank you @HillaryClinton. You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain,” Gabbard tweeted last week.
[Related: ‘If the nesting doll fits’: Clinton aide defiant on Tulsi Gabbard ‘Russian asset’ claim]
Most of the other candidates who addressed the Linn County Democratic Party Hall of Fame dinner took a different tone than Gabbard, using their time to attack the current occupant of the White House.
Kamala Harris, repeating “justice was on the ballot,” told the crowd the United States “had never achieved anything that has been about progress … without a fight.”
“We like a good fight. We know how to have a good fight. We are up for this fight,” said the California senator, 55, adding that Trump was “a walking indictment in a red tie.”
Another former prosecutor running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, said Trump didn’t know the “difference between an America as good as its promise and an America he can sell for a promise.”
Klobuchar, 59, also touted her debate performance in Westerville, Ohio, where she dropped the “Minnesota nice” demeanor and drew distinctions between herself and her rivals.
“We’re suddenly seeing momentum all over Iowa and all over the country,” she said.
