In a spin room exchange with Breitbart News editor-at-large Joel Pollak, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) discussed her performance during Wednesday evening’s first 2020 Democrat presidential debate and her top placement in the Drudge Report‘s famous online straw poll.
A partial transcript is as follows:
JOEL POLLAK: The Drudge straw poll has you winning by far. You had 38 percent of the votes, which is three times as many as second place, which is Elizabeth Warren. How do you feel you reached that audience. What was it that carried it for you?
REP. TULSI GABBARD: I’m grateful to have had this opportunity here tonight to present who I am and why I’m running for president to the American people. I think it’s important that we all recognize that we need a president who will serve the needs of every American in this country, who will put their interest ahead of their own. That’s not what we have right now. Those values and principles of service above self are what I seek to bring to the White House to make sure the voices of the American people are heard.
POLLAK: There was a very interesting exchange between you and Tim Ryan in that debate. He was taking the position of wanting to keep U.S. military deployed abroad and you really crushed that position. Tell us a little bit about how that exchange felt.
REP. GABBARD: The reason why this is so important is because the most important responsibility that the president has is to serve as commander-in-chief. Of all the candidates who are running for president, I’m the one who is most qualified to fulfill that responsibility to walk into the Oval Office and serve as commander-in-chief. And I think you heard tonight some of the reasons why those who lack the experience, lack the understanding, and conviction would, unfortunately, put our country in a place where we’d end up waging more wars, costing us more lives and tax-payer dollars. This is why I’m running for president, to be that person, to be that change in our foreign policy and those regime-change wars, new cold wars nuclear arms races and invest our precious dollars into serving the needs of our people.