Hirono dismisses Gabbard’s 2020 bid: I’ll be looking for someone with ‘record of supporting progressive goals’

Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) on Monday did not endorse Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) in her bid for the presidency in 2020.

Hirono said during an interview on MSNBC that she would be “looking for someone who has a long record of supporting progressive goals” when asked if she will support Gabbard in the Democratic primary.

{mosads}”I certainly wish all of our candidates the best because it is going to be a long, hard race, and so I wish everyone well, but for myself in these times of what I would call not normal times, I want someone who has very much been on the page in terms of supporting equal opportunity, choice, all of the kinds of issues that I’ve been fighting for for decades,” Hirono added. 

MSNBC host Kasie Hunt said in response that it “sounds like” Hirono doesn’t think “Gabbard has done that.”

“I wish her well, though, as I do all of the other candidates,” Hirono replied with a laugh.

Gabbard told CNN in an interview last week that she plans to run for the presidency in 2020.

Earlier in the week, Gabbard clashed with Hirono after the representative wrote an op-ed in The Hill that appeared aimed in part at Hirono, accusing her and other Democrats of having “weaponized religion for their own selfish gain” in their questioning of a judicial nominee.

Hirono later fired back and equated Gabbard to right-wing critics who have attacked Hirono over the questioning. 

“It is unfortunate that Congresswoman Gabbard based her misguided opinion on the far-right wing manipulation of these straightforward questions,” Will Dempster, Hirono’s spokesman, said in a statement.