Dem Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Disinvited From First Primary Debate

“It’s very risky when we have people in positions of leadership who use their power to try to quiet those who disagree with them”, Gabbard told The New York NY Times.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-NY), the chair of the DNC, maintains that she did not disinvite Gabbard.

The source claimed that Gabbard “was trying to publicly divide the DNC leadership” by calling for more than the current six debates scheduled.

Her comments come on the eve of the first Democratic presidential debate, set for Tuesday night in Las Vegas.

“Of course, in the Democratic primary we would always have room and welcome the sitting vice president”, Wasserman Schultz said on CNN’s “State of the Union”.

“The focus of the debate in Nevada as well as the other debates and forums in the coming weeks should be on the candidates who will take the stage, and their vision to move America forward”, a DNC spokesperson said in a statement sent to The Hill.

The next day, two people briefed on the conversations said, the chief of staff to Ms. Wasserman Schultz reached out to her counterpart in Ms. Gabbard’s office about attending the debate. Those five words are so problematic that DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz would rather fight with Tulsi Gabbard than acknowledge they exist.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, I think we don’t even have to go to Major Pobliska’s whistleblower lawsuit to have seen that the true intentions of the creation of the Benghazi Select Committee were revealed on national television by the majority leader, Kevin McCarthy, a little over a week ago, when he absolutely, unequivocally said that this was a committee that was created and bragged about how it’s brought Hillary Clinton’s numbers down. A few point out that any lingering drama over the debates will likely abate once the contests themselves start on Tuesday, as candidates will have plenty of time for break-out moments.

She said all of the Democratic candidates – right now, Hillary Clinton, Vermont Sen.

Also at the center of this is the “exclusivity clause” the DNC added in May saying candidates must not participate in any other debates aside from the DNC-sanctioned ones.

Numerous democratic presidential candidates, like Democratic presidential candidate, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, have called for more debates. Thank you so much for joining me Congresswoman, and actually, before we get to Joe Biden, I want to start with… “At this time eight years ago, I was dealing with calls from reporters every day because Florida and Michigan had jumped further ahead, and that was a real issue because we were losing delegates”.