U.S. Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump shakes hands with Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a campaign rally on August 23, 2024, in Glendale, Arizona, U.S.A.
| Photo Credit: AP

Donald Trump has added former White House hopefuls Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard to his transition team if he wins November’s U.S. presidential election, his campaign said on Tuesday (August 27, 2024).

Mr. Kennedy and Ms. Gabbard hail from outside the Republican party sphere where former President Trump draws most of his support.

“As President Trump’s broad coalition of supporters and endorsers expands across partisan lines, we are proud that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard have been added to the Trump/Vance Transition team,” Mr. Trump campaign senior advisor Brian Hughes said in a statement.

Mr. Kennedy, 70, an environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist and descendent of a Democratic political dynasty, was running as an independent presidential candidate until he suspended his campaign last week and endorsed Mr. Trump. He joined the race for the White House as a Democratic challenger to Biden before switching to run as an independent.

A former Democratic congresswoman, Ms. Gabbard ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. She left the party in 2022 to become an independent. Increasingly critical of Mr. Biden and his administration, she is now popular among conservatives, frequently appearing as a guest on far-right TV and radio shows.

In an interview posted on X on Monday, Mr. Kennedy told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson he had been asked to join Mr. Trump’s transition team “to help pick the people who will be running the government.”

In exchange for endorsing Mr. Trump, Mr. Kennedy is hoping for a job in a potential Trump administration, a super PAC supporting Mr. Kennedy told Reuters last week.

Strategists have said it was unclear how Mr. Kennedy’s endorsement would help Mr. Trump, who is in a tight contest with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

Voter interest in Mr. Kennedy waned this summer as Mr. Trump survived an assassination attempt and Mr. Biden passed the campaign torch to Ms. Harris.

“Donald Trump does not need traditional debate prep but will continue to meet with respected policy advisers and effective communicators like Tulsi Gabbard,” a spokesperson said. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Gearing up for his debate with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump has brought in the former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard to help sharpen his attacks, the New York Times reported citing two people aware with Trump’s schedule.

She joined the former president Trump’s practice session at the latter’s private club and home, Mar-a-Lago. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are set to face off in the ABC News debate on September 10.

Ms. Gabbard, who left the Democratic Party after her 2020 presidential run and has rebranded herself as a celebrity among Mr. Trump’s base of support, has long been friendly with Mr. Trump and was also speculated to be his running mate for some time.

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Ms. Gabbard’s involvement in Mr. Trump’s debate preparation was partly because of her own performance in a 2019 Democratic presidential primary debate, when Ms. Gabbard eviscerated Ms. Harris in a memorable onstage encounter.

Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump, confirmed Ms. Gabbard’s involvement in an email, NYT reported. Ms. Leavitt said the former President has “proven to be one of the best debaters in political history as evidenced by his knockout blow to Joe Biden. He does not need traditional debate prep but will continue to meet with respected policy advisers and effective communicators like Tulsi Gabbard, who successfully dominated Kamala Harris on the debate stage in 2020.”

Though Mr. Trump says he “doesn’t need to” prepare for debates, the former President has spent more time this year practising for debates than he did in either 2016 or 2020, the New York Times reported citing advisers who have worked with him. He still doesn’t do traditional debate prep. Nobody played Mr. Biden in his sessions ahead of their CNN debate on June 27.

Ahead of his CNN debate with Mr. Biden in June, Mr. Trump sat with advisers for blocks of time or informally on plane trips and discussed potential topics and lines of questioning. In more formal sessions at Mar-a-Lago, aides have sat in chairs opposite him, playing the role of moderators. Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida asked especially combative questions, according to a person in the room.

Also Read: Healing a nation: On Kamala Harris and the U.S. Presidential race

Other lawmakers, including his eventual running mate, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, have also spent time with Mr. Trump on policy topics. Joe Biden’s halting and disjointed performance in his June debate with Mr. Trump ultimately led him to him dropping out of the race. Mr. Trump’s aides are expected to handle preparations similarly for his debate with Ms. Harris, scheduled for September 10, NYT reported.

Notably, Ms. Gabbard brings some key qualities to Mr. Trump’s role: She’s a woman, at a moment when Mr. Trump is for a second time facing a woman as his general election rival; she’s a former House member, giving her policy experience; and, perhaps most importantly for Mr. Trump, she has been on a debate stage with Ms. Harris and delivered a stinging attack against her record as a prosecutor, New York Times reported.

However, Ms. Gabbard’s attacks on Ms. Harris in the July 2019 debate, all came from the left. She alleged that Ms. Harris, when she was a district attorney in San Francisco, “put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.” She also accused Ms. Harris of having obstructed evidence that could have let an innocent man leave death row, doing so only when a court “forced her to.”

Ms. Harris, on the other hand, replied 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.” Following the debate, Ms. Harris mocked Ms. Gabbard’s low standing in the polls. Eventually, Ms. Harris dropped out of that race in December 2019, and Ms. Gabbard did the same months later, in March 2020.