Gabbard says Harris ‘not qualified to serve as commander in chief’

White House hopeful Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) panned Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) Tuesday as being unqualified to be president, saying the California senator lacks foreign policy experience and does not have the temperament for the job. 

“I think one of the things I’m most concerned with is, Kamala Harris is not qualified to serve as commander in chief, and I can say this from a personal perspective as a soldier. She’s got no background or experience in foreign policy, and she lacks the temperament that is necessary for a commander in chief,” Gabbard said on the podcast “Outkick the Coverage” Tuesday. 

{mosads}Gabbard, who was deployed to Iraq during her time serving in the Army National Guard, said she hopes the next president will have more foreign policy experience than past commanders in chief. 

“I’ve seen the cost of war firsthand. I’ve experienced the consequences of what happens when we have presidents, as we have from both political parties in the White House, who lack experience, who lack that foreign policy understanding, who therefore fall under the influence of the foreign policy establishment, the military-industrial complex,” Gabbard said. “This is what’s so dangerous. This is what we’ve seen occurring over time.” 

Harris’s campaign shot back, referencing a 2017 meeting between the Hawaii congresswoman and Syrian President Bashar Assad for which Gabbard has received bipartisan criticism. 

“Definite hard pass on taking national security advice from Assad’s cheerleader,” Harris’s campaign Communications Director Lily Adams tweeted.

Definite hard pass on taking national security advice from Assad’s cheerleader. https://t.co/X7aCVW9Jxi

— Lily Adams (@adamslily) July 23, 2019

The Harris campaign pointed to Adams’s tweet when reached for comment by The Hill. 

Gabbard has gone after Harris in the past, most notably earlier this month when she hammered the Californian over her exchange with former Vice President Joe Biden at June’s primary debate in which she confronted him over his past opposition to federally mandated busing.

“This is just a political ploy and I think a very underhanded one, just to try to get herself attention, to move herself up in the polls,” Gabbard said on CBS News.