Authored by Ben Sellers via Headline USA,

If Tulsi Gabbard is the running mate whom presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is expected to unveil next week during the Republican National Convention, she had yet to be notified as of Friday night.

Tulsi Gabbard / PHOTO: Ben Sellers, Headline USA

Asked in an exclusive interview with Headline USA whether she was going to be traveling to the GOP convention in Milwaukee, she replied, “I don’t plan to at this time. We’ll see what happens.”

Of this much, one can be certain: Gabbard was being her usual forthright self.

“She will look you in the eye and she will tell you the truth,” said former Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., shortly thereafter, during the introduction of his former congressional colleague at a book-signing event and political fundraiser in Greensboro, N.C., which also featured state-level candidates including lieutenant gubernatorial nominee Hal Weatherman.

In an era where gaslighting is the norm, Walker’s characterization of Gabbard would be a powerful testament to anyone. Although it may seem simple, underpinning those 14 words is a reputation that is very difficult to earn—and even more difficult to retain.

More remarkable yet, however, is that Walker was making it of a one-time nemesis of sorts, none other than the former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.

If ever the Trump administration were taking a risk on letting a mole into its ranks, on paper at least, Gabbard, the red-pilled ex-representative from Hawaii, would be a likely candidate.

Yet, time and again Gabbard has proven herself to be an anomaly who flouts expectations while following her own moral compass, most notably in her disavowal of the Democratic Party in October 2022.

“Today’s Democratic Party is led by this elitist cabal of warmongers, and in my book, For Love of Country, I go into detail in my own personal experiences and the reasons why I could no longer call myself a Democrat,” she told Headline USA—a statement that closely tracked with her original blog post outlining those reasons.

However, Gabbard is far from unique in that regard. In fact, she noted that she encountered ex-Democrats on an almost daily basis reaching out to her in solidarity.

Much like Ronald Reagan famously quipped in 1962, they often feel that the party left them.

“The Democratic Party of today is wholly unrecognizable to the party that I joined over 20 years ago,” Gabbard said.

“And I hear from or meet Democrats from across the country, almost every day—whether people send me a DM on Instagram or send me an e-mail, or I run into them in the airport—who express the same thing,” she continued. “People who may have been lifelong Democrats or people who were raised in a Democrat family, just saying that they don’t recognize today’s Democrat party and they have no connection to the insane, woke, warmongering policies of today’s Democratic Party.”

In a question-and-answer session with Walker, Gabbard offered a similar reflection, recalling how she was once berated by the Obama administration for daring to question its foreign policy.

And she recalled her frustration with the Democratic mantra “vote blue, no matter who.”

Gabbard told the packed house on Friday—many of whom paid $100 for entry to the event, which included a copy of the book to be signed by Gabbard, as well as catered refreshments from host venue the Painted Plate—that American freedoms currently faced what seemed to be an unparalleled threat in the nation’s history.

“Growing up, I never would have imagined that we would be debating free speech in America and whether or not it should exist,” she said, referencing the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Murthy v. Missouri, which said the government did nothing wrong in colluding with social-media companies like Facebook and Twitter to suppress vital information about the COVID-19 pandemic, Hunter Biden laptop, 2020 election and more.

As Walker noted in his introduction to Gabbard, she has done more than simply cultivate a sterling reputation as a truth-teller—she’s turned it into a veritable brand.

Because of her candor, honesty, integrity and valor (serving as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and currently as an active military reservist), she has become the very antithesis of the modern leftist in the Biden era.

Thus, it comes as no surprise that Gabbard has been called upon frequently to comment on the recent implosion of the Biden campaign following President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate with Trump last month.

Although she has every reason to feel vindicated by it, given her own tumultuous history with the Democrats, Gabbard said it was no cause for joy, even seeming to take pity on Biden—whom she said she has “known … for a long time”—despite his extensive track-record of corruption during his more lucid moments.

“What we are seeing is the lies coming from the Democrat elite have been exposed,” Gabbard told Headline USA. 

“We are seeing how, in broad daylight, it is not actually Joe Biden making the decisions and calling the shots—whether it be related to economic or foreign policy—it’s the Tony Blinkens and the Jake Sullivans and the Hillary Clintons and Lloyd Austins who are making these decisions, which should be troubling to every American because we didn’t vote for any of those people,” she added.

On one hand, Gabbard seemed alarmed at the idea of having an empty vessel at the Resolution Desk, noting it was “a huge problem for us as Americans to have someone in that position who is incapable of fulfilling that responsibility.”

She said she was particularly troubled that the commander in chief could not even recall during the debate the 13 service members whose lives were lost in Afghanistan and the three whose lives were lost in Jordan—among the known U.S. military casualties to occur on Biden’s watch, although others are likely to have fallen in America’s shadow war in Ukraine.

“He couldn’t even remember a single one of their families,” Gabbard said.

“He should not be in that position, but we also shouldn’t be under any kind of illusion that, should he be forced out or choose to leave, that anything will be different with a President Kamala Harris or anyone else that they choose to fill that position,” she continued. “The Deep State—the military industrial complex—they will continue calling the shots. They only care about power. They don’t care whose face—whose picture is hanging on the wall.”

As for the prospects of her own service in the Trump administration, Gabbard didn’t rule out the possibility that she might yet have an outside shot at the running-mate offer, even though Trump’s campaign has floated several other names as finalists.

“I think that is a question for one man and one man alone,” she said.

“It’s not something I’m thinking about,” she added. “My goal—this is the most important election of of our lifetimes because it is our freedom, and our safety and security, that’s on the line.”

Gabbard said that one position she would love to be offered was the role of secretary of State, citing her eight years of service in Congress on the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees—as well as her more than two decades in uniform, including as a current battalion commander.

“I could directly wrestle control away from the military–industrial complex and the neocons of Washington and actually be in a position to help effect the kind of policies President Trump talks about: to actually bring about peace, to walk us back from the brink of nuclear war—an issue he talks about quite strongly and with great concern—and to get our country back on track,” she said.

In her interview with Walker, Gabbard said that wherever the years ahead may take her, and whatever may happen in the most important election of our lifetimes, she will continue to serve to the best of her ability.

“Whatever role, whatever opportunity, whatever title or position I have, my goal is to try to be of the best service I can to our country,” she said.

Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/realbensellers.