Tulsi Gabbard Only Major Democrat Candidate Against Impeachment

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) reiterated her opposition to the impeachment of President Donald Trump on Monday — leaving her as the only major presidential candidate against the idea.

Almost every other candidate has backed impeachment and urged the Democrat-run U.S. House of Representatives to start impeachment proceedings. On Tuesday, former vice president Joe Biden was said to back impeachment if Trump failed to comply with Congress.

Gabbard, however, has opposed impeachment in the past, and continues to do so. In early September, she said that it “will only further … tear our country apart.” And on Monday, Gabbard told Fox News that “I believe that impeachment, at this juncture, would be terribly divisive for this country.”

She also said that she would attend Tuesday’s caucus meeting at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time to discuss impeachment. In advance of that meeting, more Democrats have been coming out in favor of impeachment — including civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), who is expected to inspire others to follow suit.

Separately, Gabbard qualified Tuesday for the third Democratic Party presidential primary debate in October. Though she reached the 130,000 donor threshold, Gabbard did not have the minimum poll numbers required to qualify for the September debate.

That changed after she castigated Trump harshly over potential U.S. support for Saudi Arabia in the wake of an attack, widely believed to have been launched by Iran, against Saudi oil facilities.

Update: Gabbard reiterated her opposition to impeachment on CNN on Tuesday: “I think it’s important Donald Trump is defeated. I believe I can defeat him in 2020. But it’s the voters who need to make that choice, unequivocally.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.