Trump debate prep: Tulsi Gabbard advises Republican to attack Harris on 'hypocrisy'

• Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who is now helping Donald Trump get elected, is advising the Republican nominee to focus his debate attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris on her policy pivots.
• The Democrat from Hawaii has experience debating Harris in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries.
• Surrogates like Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the former Democrat turned third-party presidential candidate who recently dropped out and endorsed Trump, allow the Republican campaign to paint itself as a refuge for independents and Democratic defectors.

Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who has endorsed Republican former President Donald Trump's campaign, is advising the GOP nominee to focus on Vice President Kamala Harris' policy pivots in their upcoming debate.

Harris "has already shown that she is trying to move away from her record, move away from her positions," Gabbard said in a Sunday interview on CNN's "State of the Union."

Gabbard is part of a small group of Trump advisers who are helping the former president prepare for the debate, scheduled for Sept. 10 on ABC.

Trump's campaign insists that the candidate does not engage in traditional role playing debate practice sessions. Still, Gabbard is uniquely suited to help Trump understand what it would be like to debate Harris, given her firsthand experience during the 2020 Democratic primary contest.

"What I pointed out in that debate stage in the 2020 campaign was her hypocrisy," Gabbard said.

In July of 2019, Gabbard launched a noteworthy attack on Harris during a Democratic primary debate, noting that as a prosecutor Harris had secured jail time for marijuana violations, and accusing Harris of not having done enough to eliminate cash bail.

At the time, criminal