Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democratic presidential candidate who serves in her state's national guard, will step away from her White House campaign Monday to report for active duty, participating in a two-week joint training exercise mission in Indonesia.
“We’ll be doing a training exercise with the Indonesian military, focused on a few different things like counter-terrorism, humanitarian aid and disaster response, and joining my brothers and sisters from the Hawaii National Guard in doing so,” Gabbard told
Gabbard, a three-term lawmaker, served two tours in the Middle East with the Hawaii Army National Guard — in Iraq from 2004-2005 and in Kuwait from 2008-2009. She is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, and sat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the previous Congress.
"I love our country. I love being able to serve our country in so many ways including as a soldier," Gabbard said. "And so while some people are telling me, like, ‘Gosh, this is a terrible time to leave the campaign, can't you find a way out of it?’ You know, that's not what this is about."
Gabbard has made her military experience a centerpiece of her presidential bid, touting her qualifications to become commander-in-chief and denouncing “regime change wars” and “the gunboat diplomacy of the past.”
But Gabbard’s foreign policy credentials have come under attack from fellow Democrats critical of her controversial decision to meet in 2017 with Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has perpetrated chemical weapons attacks against his own people.
Gabbard is among a handful of 2020 White House aspirants who are veterans of the U.S. military, along with Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), and former Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Penn.).
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine