Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) said that she was not invited to the Democratic National Committee’s nominating convention, making her the only candidate who won at least one delegate in the primaries not to be honored with a request to participate in the event in some way.
Gabbard, who has sparred with establishment Democrats in the past, confirmed her lack of invitation to the convention in responding to a tweet by one of her followers.
“You’re correct - I was not invited to participate in any way,” she wrote Thursday, sharing a tweet which noted that “it has been a tradition that spanned decades for any candidate who earned a delegate to be offered a speaking slot at the convention.”
The other six Democratic candidates who won delegates in the primaries were all involved in the DNC convention in some form. The DNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Epoch Times.
Gabbard has been a vocal critic of vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, criticizing her record as a prosecutor and saying she “lacks the temperament that is necessary for a commander in chief.”
“Sen. Harris said she’s proud of her record as a prosecutor and that she’ll be a prosecutor president, but I’m deeply concerned about this record,” Gabbard said on the debate stage. “She put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.”
“She blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so. She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California, and she fought to keep cash bail system in place that impacts poor people in the worst kind of way,” Gabbard continued.
Harris responded saying she stood by her work as a prosecutor: “When I was in the position of having to decide whether or not to seek a death penalty on cases I prosecuted, I made a very difficult decision that was not popular to not seek the death penalty. History shows that and I am proud of those decisions.”
The Hawaii member of Congress also sued failed 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for defamation after the former secretary of state called her a “Russian asset.”
“Great! Thank you @HillaryClinton. You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain,” Gabbard wrote in a tweet after Clinton made the comments.
“From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a concerted campaign to destroy my reputation. We wondered who was behind it and why. Now we know—it was always you, through your proxies and powerful allies in the corporate media and war machine, afraid of the threat I pose. It’s now clear that this primary is between you and me. Don’t cowardly hide behind your proxies. Join the race directly,” Gabbard continued. She later dropped the suit against Clinton.
At Thursday’s convention, former vice president Joe Biden accepted the Democratic presidential nomination, seeking in a 22-minute acceptance speech to portray himself as a viable alternative to President Donald Trump.
Biden summed up his view of the campaign: “We choose a path of becoming angry, less hopeful and more divided, a path of shadow and suspicion, or we can choose a different path and together take this chance to heal.”
If Biden is successful in his bid for the White House, he will be the oldest president ever elected. Trump, who is 74, has publicly cast doubt on Biden’s mental capacity and has dubbed the challenger “Sleepy Joe.”
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