{"id":2230550,"date":"2024-04-25T21:24:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T01:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-trouble-with-tulsi-why-the-former-hawaii-congresswoman-is-trumps-worst-choice-for-vice-president\/"},"modified":"2024-04-25T21:27:36","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T01:27:36","slug":"the-trouble-with-tulsi-why-the-former-hawaii-congresswoman-is-trumps-worst-choice-for-vice-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-trouble-with-tulsi-why-the-former-hawaii-congresswoman-is-trumps-worst-choice-for-vice-president\/","title":{"rendered":"The Problem with Tulsi: Why She&#8217;s Trump&#8217;s Least Suitable VP Pick"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-trouble-with-tulsi-why-the-former-hawaii-congresswoman-is-trumps-worst-choice-for-vice-president%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2230550&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Former President Donald Trump,\u2062 together with his \u200dinner\u2062 circle and media observers, prepares for the GOP\u200b convention in \u2064Milwaukee. \u200bFocus shifts \u200dto crucial steps like fundraising, donor outreach, field office setups, and selecting a running mate. Despite speculation around\u2062 multiple potential\u200c candidates, Tulsi Gabbard \u2064stands out \u200bnegatively as \u200bTrump\u2019s VP\u200c consideration, lacking strengths and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/independent-military-lawyers-now-in-charge-of-prosecuting-servicemembers-major-crimes\/\" title=\"Military lawyers now independently prosecuting major crimes committed by servicemembers\">facing significant obstacles<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Having secured the Republican nomination in all but name, former President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Donald Trump<\/a>, his inner circle, and outside observers in the media and elsewhere have shifted their focus to the next steps he needs to take on the road to the GOP convention in Milwaukee this July. Steps such as building out his fundraising operation and expanding his donor outreach in order <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/politics\/trump-in-full-sprint-to-close-biden-s-money-lead-as-legal-bills-mount\/ar-BB1laGJh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>to reduce<\/a> President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/joe-biden\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Joe Biden<\/a>\u2019s significant cash advantage, establishing field offices and other campaign infrastructure in battleground states, making overtures to Republicans who cast their ballots for Trump\u2019s rivals in the primaries, even continuing to prepare for his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/2967061\/trumps-trial-so-far-former-president-seeks-rare-face-to-face-access-with-jurors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>four criminal trials<\/a>, the first of which began April 15 in Manhattan. <\/p>\n<p>But the biggest step Trump takes before the convention will be naming his running mate. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2024\/03\/31\/inside-donald-trumps-apprentice-style-search-for-a-running-mate-00149827\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Speculation<\/a> about whom the once and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-fun-facts-about-failed-national-security-adviser-jake-sullivan\/\" title=\"5 Fun Facts About Failed National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan\">potential future president<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/nymag.com\/intelligencer\/article\/trump-vp-pick-2024-candidates-odds.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>will select<\/a> has consequently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/donald-trump-vice-president-nominee-candidates-2024-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>ramped up<\/a> in the last few weeks. Numerous names have been bruited about, from the obvious to the implausible, from prominent to obscure, from big states and small ones, from those in high office to those in none. Squint and you can see almost any of them occupying the Naval Observatory. Any of them, that is, except <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/tulsi-gabbard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Tulsi Gabbard<\/a>, the former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, who is by some distance the worst of all those Trump is supposedly considering for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hunter-biden-defector-emails-pipeline-to-obama-admin-seen-as-currency\/\" title=\"Hunter Biden Defector Emails: 'Pipeline' to Obama Admin Seen as 'Currency'\">vice president<\/a>. <\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>(Dean MacAdam for the Washington Examiner)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Not that the prospect of a hire blowing up in his face has ever stopped Trump. And so Gabbard, by all accounts, is in contention for the Republican Party\u2019s No. 2 spot. Trump has said so publicly and privately. When Fox News\u2019s Laura Ingraham included Gabbard in a group of possible vice presidents during a February interview of Trump, instead of shooting down the idea, <a href=\"https:\/\/nymag.com\/intelligencer\/article\/trump-vp-pick-2024-candidates-odds.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>he replied<\/a>, \u201cAll of those people are good. They\u2019re all solid.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>According to a recent <em>New York Times<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/14\/us\/politics\/trump-vice-president-pick.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>article<\/a>, after meeting with her at Mar-a-Lago, Trump \u201cmade clear to advisers that she should be on his list of options\u201d \u2014 a list that otherwise is dominated by more conventional choices, any of whom would be a less farfetched alternative even for someone as unconventional as the 45th president. <\/p>\n<p>It contains, for example, several of Trump\u2019s rivals for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) barely made a noise in the primary and in addition to being an old white guy comes from a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-seek-to-revert-ohio-to-swing-state-status\/\" title=\"Democrats seek to revert Ohio to swing state status\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/conservatives-hilariously-react-to-liz-cheneys-tweet-boasting-support-from-kevin-costner\/\" title=\"Conservatives Hilariously React To Liz Cheney\u2019s Tweet Boasting Support From Kevin Costner\">reliably red<\/a> state<\/a> that is both small and in no danger of falling to Biden. But he\u2019s wealthy, can fundraise, wouldn\u2019t overshadow Trump, and is unlikely to stand in the way of Trump\u2019s anointed MAGA successor should Trump win. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/nikki-haley\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Nikki Haley<\/a> also comes from a small and reliably red state, South Carolina. Disaffected and Never Trump Republicans rained money upon her as the last woman standing in the primary. Like Burgum, she\u2019d help Trump on the cash front. As a woman and minority, her demographic advantages are evident. Yet her standing with Republicans tanked as the race went on, and her identity as the avatar of the Bush-McCain-Romney GOP the base despises might cause it to revolt should Trump choose her. Not to mention that she categorically ruled out being vice president. <\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Tulsi Gabbard, at left, speaks in North Charleston, South Carolina, March 18, 2023; at right, Kamala Harris at a union event in Big Bend, Wisconsin, Jan. 22, 2024. (Gabbard, Meg Kinnard\/AP; Harris, Morry Gash\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Kristi Noem and Sarah Huckabee Sanders are both female governors. Noem has a plus in her looks, Sanders in her tenure as White House press secretary. Both represent reliably red states (South Dakota and Arkansas, respectively) that are small and add nothing to Trump\u2019s electoral coalition. Young, Hispanic, and telegenic, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) was once seen as the future of the GOP. Despite flaming out in the 2016 primary, he has suddenly found himself among the front-runners for the opportunity to preside over the Senate. The only problem? Rubio, like Trump, is from Florida, and the Constitution bars electors from voting for a president and vice president from the same state. That would not be a concern if Trump tabbed Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who since crashing ignominiously out of the primary before a vote was cast has reinvented himself as one of Trump\u2019s staunchest surrogates. He\u2019s black and donors love him, two marks in his favor. But like Haley, he hails from South Carolina, a state that counts for little in Trump\u2019s electoral calculus. <\/p>\n<p>Other prospects have the same sorts of credits and debits. Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/jd-vance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>J.D. Vance<\/a> (R-OH), maybe the most MAGA figure being contemplated, is in Trump\u2019s own words a \u201cfighter.\u201d But Ohio, too, is reliably red these days, Vance is in his first term in the Senate, and Trump may prove hesitant to pick anyone who might claim to succeed him in leadership of the movement as well as the country. Trump took a shine to Katie Britt, but her poorly received performance delivering the GOP response to the State of the Union address last month suggested the first-term senator from Alabama isn\u2019t ready for prime time. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the No. 3 Republican in the House, is one of Trump\u2019s most ardent defenders in Congress. That she\u2019s a woman is a bonus. But she\u2019s only a congresswoman, and it\u2019s unlikely she\u2019d put Trump\u2019s former home state of New York in play. <\/p>\n<p>These figures and others not mentioned have their strengths and weaknesses. For some, perhaps most, those strengths are vastly outweighed by the weaknesses. But they do have them. Gabbard, on the other hand, scarcely has any strengths at all. In choosing her, Trump would be choosing someone who is all downside and no upside. <\/p>\n<p>For one thing, Gabbard, though now an independent, spent her entire two-decade career in elective office as a Democrat, beginning when she was elected to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/hawaii\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Hawaii<\/a> House of Representatives at just 21. She backed Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/bernie-sanders\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Bernie Sanders<\/a> (I-VT) in 2016, resigning her position as vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee to do so. After dropping out of the 2020 presidential race, she endorsed Biden. She is a proponent of \u201cMedicare for All\u201d and free college tuition. This is hardly the track record one would expect of someone eying the GOP presidential ticket.<\/p>\n<p>And eying it she is, by her own admission. Asked in March if she\u2019d be amenable to being Trump\u2019s vice president, Gabbard <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/4503314-gabbard-signals-open-being-vice-president\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>conceded<\/a>, \u201cI would be open to that.\u201d The possibility that she\u2019s on Trump\u2019s short list was a major factor in her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/2024-election\/ex-democrat-catching-trumps-robert-f-kennedy-jrs-eyes-rcna143941\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>decision<\/a> to spurn independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s offer to be his running mate. Gabbard, a source told NBC News, only turned down Kennedy because she \u201cis convinced that Trump is going to pick her.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Gabbard\u2019s personal background would also likely become a campaign problem. She was raised in an offshoot of the Hare Krishna movement, which critics have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/tulsi-gabbard-science-of-identity-controversial-religious-sect-2022-10\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>likened to a cult<\/a> and have accused of being anti-gay and Islamophobic. Gabbard herself <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2019\/01\/13\/politics\/kfile-tulsi-gabbard-lgbt\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>once worked for<\/a> an organization that promoted conversion therapy, for which she has since apologized. She has for many years been a practicing Hindu, which some religious and social conservatives may find off-putting. <\/p>\n<p>While some Republicans may find Gabbard\u2019s religion offensive, even more, especially those who favor a robust, interventionist foreign policy, will balk at her skepticism of American power and dalliances with hostile powers. She drew <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/house\/316430-gabbard-meeting-with-assad-draws-disgust-from-fellow-lawmakers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>bipartisan ire<\/a> for meeting with Bashar Assad in 2017, a move seen as validating the Syrian dictator\u2019s murderous war against his own people. Gabbard has also taken a decidedly soft stance toward Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, chastising Biden and Western leaders for being insufficiently solicitous of Russia\u2019s \u201clegitimate\u201d security concerns about Ukraine\u2019s possible accession to NATO. Distasteful as many in the GOP\u2019s old guard might find these stances, they are what has endeared her to what can be called, <em>faute de mieux<\/em>, the Tucker Carlson wing of the party, after the former Fox News host who is an ardent admirer of Gabbard in large part because of her views on international relations. <\/p>\n<p>There is, moreover, a clear appetite for those views within the party. Trump himself has sought them out. The former president solicited Gabbard\u2019s advice on \u201cforeign policy and how the Defense Department should be run in a second Trump term,\u201d the <em>Washington Post<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/elections\/2024\/02\/14\/tulsi-gabbard-trump-defense\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>revealed<\/a> in February. This meeting of the minds is why, per NBC News, Trump insiders believe a national security post is a much likelier landing spot for the Iraq War veteran in a second Trump administration than the vice presidency. <\/p>\n<p>In addition to the ideological and philosophical considerations that limit Gabbard\u2019s appeal to Republican voters, there are practical concerns that might give Trump himself pause. The ability to raise money is one of Trump\u2019s main criteria in choosing a running mate. Unlike such contenders as Vance, Stefanik, Burgum, Scott, and Rubio, Gabbard has no constituency in the GOP donor class. Indeed, her positions are more likely to repel the plutocrats who turned to Haley in the forlorn hope that she could vanquish Trump and restore the pre-2015 Republican Party. \u201cMr. Trump has asked several people about the fundraising prowess of possible running mates,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/14\/us\/politics\/trump-vice-president-pick.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>reported<\/a> Michael Bender of the <em>New York Times<\/em>. When it comes to opening Republican donor wallets and checkbooks, Gabbard is surely at the bottom of the list. <\/p>\n<p>The blackest mark against Gabbard from Trump\u2019s perspective is that she squanders one of his strongest advantages: voter fears that a vote for Biden is really a vote for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/kamala-harris\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Kamala Harris<\/a>. Trump and Biden are the two oldest presidential nominees in history. Given this reality, their understudies may be a factor in 2024 in a way they haven\u2019t in decades. <\/p>\n<p>Harris, the incumbent, is deeply unpopular. Her ratings are worse than Biden\u2019s. From her irritating laugh to her habit of tossing word salad whenever she opens her mouth, she is an object of contempt and ridicule whose most notable accomplishment to date is a series of failed reinventions, each less successful than the last. <\/p>\n<p>Yet despite her myriad flaws, Harris is a former state attorney general and U.S. senator \u2014 i.e., someone who\u2019s been elected statewide multiple times \u2014 and not just in any state but in California, the largest state in the union. As vice president, she\u2019s also been on a winning national ticket. Gabbard fans may no more want to hear it than Harris\u2019s numerous detractors on the Right, but as awful as she is, she is simply a more credible potential president than Gabbard. <\/p>\n<p>Former Vice President Mike Pence solidified Trump\u2019s standing within the party and helped win over skeptical GOP voters. Gabbard seems designed to have the opposite effect. Popular though she may be with a segment of the Republican Party that makes up in volume what it lacks in size, there is good reason to think she would be much less attractive to average Republicans, whose votes are more important to Trump as there are a lot more of them. <\/p>\n<p>Gabbard has tried to make herself more attractive to Republicans in the last few years by, among other things, abandoning the Democratic Party to become an independent, speaking at CPAC, and even serving as a guest host on Carlson\u2019s Fox News show before the network fired him. But less unpalatable is not the same as more palatable. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title><strong>CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Trump is looking for a lot of qualities in a running mate. But as the <em>Washington Post<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/politics\/what-donald-trump-wants-in-his-next-vice-president-and-who-he-s-considering\/ar-BB1lvivl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>put it<\/a>, \u201cMore than anything, he wants someone who can help him win.\u201d For a host of reasons, from her unusual upbringing and her decadeslong career as a Democratic office holder to her status as the favorite of a disreputable fringe of the conservative movement, that person is not Tulsi Gabbard. <\/p>\n<p>Or to put it another way: Gabbard would be an <em>interesting<\/em> choice for vice president. Interesting in the same way a Brit might respond \u201cthat\u2019s interesting\u201d upon hearing someone declare his or her intention to surrender worldly goods and go live in a commune. Which is to say, he or she would have to be completely barmy to do it. <\/p>\n<p><em>Varad Mehta is a writer and historian. He lives in the Philadelphia area. Find him on X: @varadmehta.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the Republican nomination practically sealed, ex-President Trump and his team, along with media and observers, are gearing up for the upcoming GOP convention in July in Milwaukee. One crucial step on the agenda is expanding his fundraising efforts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2811,"featured_media":2230551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/FEA.Tulsi_-1024x591.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2230550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/FEA.Tulsi_-1024x591.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2811"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2230550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2230551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2230550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2230550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2230550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}