By Drew Angerer/Getty Images.
The presidential campaign of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, the renegade Democrat known as much for her chummy relationship with Bashar al-Assad as for supporting Bernie Sanders, is beginning to resemble the candidate herself: confusing, disorganized, and, according to Politico, falling apart. Insiders describe Gabbard’s operation as haphazard, and Gabbard herself as “a candidate who managed to be both indecisive and impulsive.” Exhibit A? Her campaign rollout, which those involved say was disconcertingly rocky:
At first, Gabbard had vendors and staffers working through Thanksgiving weekend to get ready for a campaign rollout, only to pull back. Over the next several weeks, Gabbard went up to the starting line again—signaling to her team that a green light was imminent—only to make repeated retreats . . .
When Gabbard did finally announce she would make a 2020 run, her team was blindsided. “I have decided to run and will be making a formal announcement within the next week,” she told CNN on a Friday night in a pre-taped interview for The Van Jones Show.
The Gabbard campaign Web site was not ready to go live; social-media posts weren’t ready to be sent out. And Gabbard hadn’t signed off on the launch video.
The surprise announcement left Gabbard’s aides working frantically on a Friday night to get everything up online. Jones himself was surprised by her announcement and did not expect it to come on his show.
Leadership, too, is fractured. The campaign is reportedly planning a formal kickoff in Hawaii on Saturday, after which campaign manager Rania Batrice, the former deputy campaign manager for Sanders’s 2016 campaign and a well-regarded operative, is set to depart. Revolution Messaging, Gabbard’s consulting firm, will also reportedly sever ties with her campaign after the launch. Erika Tsuji, a campaign spokesperson, downplayed both departures, telling Politico that Batrice “is a longtime adviser and friend and remains so,” and that Revolution was hired solely for the launch, and “we appreciate the work they’ve done to that end.” (In a statement to Politico, Batrice called Gabbard a “close friend” and wished her “all the best.”)
As her campaign stumbles, Gabbard is starting plenty of fires elsewhere. After her announcement, her hometown paper published an editorial recommending that she “focus on her job” instead of a presidential bid. Hawaii state Senator Kai Kahele announced earlier this month that he plans to challenge Gabbard for her congressional seat, saying somewhat pointedly in a video released on Martin Luther King Jr. day that Hawaii needs “leaders who put the common interests of Hawaii’s people ahead of their own.” And Gabbard herself ignited a feud with Senator Mazie Hirono, one of the most popular senators in the country, by “implicitly accusing” her and other Democrats of having “weaponized religion for their own selfish gain” in her questioning of a judicial nominee. (Hirono’s office shot back with a statement, calling it “unfortunate that Congresswoman Gabbard based her misguided opinion on the far-right wing manipulation of these straightforward questions.”)
Though her heterodoxy had always alienated Gabbard from her Democratic peers—her strict anti-interventionist foreign policy, for instance, has won plaudits from both the far left and the far right—Gabbard’s flirtation with the Joe Rogan constituency will likely win her few fans in a Democratic primary. If her campaign continues on its downward spiral, however, her message might never get a chance to break through.
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This story was originally published by Vanity Fair
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