Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) threw her support behind a campaign finance plan put forth by fellow Democratic presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), which includes banning TV ads during the presidential primary debates.
“I agree with that completely,” Gabbard told Hill.TV on Friday in reference to Sanders’s ambitious new proposal.
“The influence of the rich and powerful and the corporate special interests is rampant and this is the result that we’re seeing is an election process that does not serve the interests of voters,” she added.
Sanders on Monday released a comprehensive anti-corruption plan with a major focus on getting corporate money out of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), a group both Gabbard and Sanders have been critical of in the past.
Under this new plan, Sanders would ban donations to the Democratic Party Convention from lobbyists and corporations, among other proposals. A new agency would replace the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to enforce these reforms.
Sanders’s plan would also ban advertising during presidential primary debates.
“Private media outlets are making enormous sums of money during events that are meant to inform the public about their candidates,” Sanders stated in the plan. “This type of influence must end.”
Sanders is currently taking a break from the campaign trail in order to recuperate after undergoing a heart procedure last week.
He is poised to take the stage along with Gabbard and ten other White House hopefuls at the Oct. 15 Democratic presidential debate in Ohio.
—Tess Bonn
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