Tulsi Gabbard stresses voters not to be manipulated ahead of 2024 election

Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard cautioned voters from being manipulated ahead of the 2024 election, specifically concerning candidates’ use of “fearmongering” ads.

While discussing a recent ad that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) Campaign for Democracy PAC released, which features two women getting arrested in Alabama for attempting to cross the border to get an abortion, Gabbard argued that the ad was released to distract voters from other key topics in the election, not to warn voters that such a situation as the one in the ad could actually happen.

The ad comes as abortion access is shaping to be a major election topic for voters.

“They want to distract away from the very real issues that most voters are concerned about,” Gabbard said. “The economy, it’s the border, it’s education, it’s crime in our streets, and so they use these as fearmongering tools to try to divide us and try to make people afraid of something that frankly isn’t real.”

Gabbard also predicted that the Democratic Party will seek to politicize abortion access in order to distract voters from President Joe Biden’s record, of which she said the party is “terrified.” She explained that Biden and former President Donald Trump, the two expected nominees for the 2024 presidential election, both have track records that voters can look back on, and stressed the need for people to continue to inform voters about all the issues at stake.

“People talk about manipulation with our election, that’s what’s happening here, and we can’t allow ourselves to fall for it,” Gabbard said.

Gabbard, who previously ran for president for the Democratic Party in 2020 but has since become an independent, also knocked those who have praised Biden as the greatest president of all time, saying such claims have “become comical at this point.”

Abortion access, along with border security and inflation, are all expected to be major motivators for voters leading up to the 2024 presidential election. A poll released earlier this month found that recipients believe Biden would handle abortion access better than Trump, while the former president is favored on the economy, border security, and mental fitness for being president.

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Gabbard is rumored to be among Trump’s short list for potential vice president candidates, along with Reps. Byron Donalds (R-FL) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY), and Govs. Kristi Noem (R-SD) and Ron DeSantis (R-FL). Gabbard said earlier this month that she declined an offer to be Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vice presidential candidate, who is running for president as an independent.

In the event that she was Trump’s vice president, Gabbard said that her loyalty would always be to the United States and never to a specific political party. She also said she does not question Trump’s loyalty to the U.S., pointing to how he is still running for president despite his legal battles.