Kamala Harris dismisses Tulsi Gabbard as a Bashar al-Assad 'apologist' who is polling 'at zero'

WASHINGTON – Sen. Kamala Harris hit back at Rep. Tulsi Gabbard during an interview with CNN on Wednesday after the congresswoman from Hawaii tore into Harris for her record as a California prosecutor on the debate stage in Detroit.

"Listen, this is going to sound immodest, but I'm obviously a top-tier candidate, and so I did expect that I would be on the stage and take hits tonight because there are a lot of people that are trying to make the stage for the next debate" Harris told CNN host Anderson Cooper when asked whether she was surprised by Gabbard's attack.

"And especially when people are at zero, 1% or whatever she might be at," Harris said, referring to Gabbard's position in the polls.

The senator from Calfornia then slammed Gabbard for previous comments she made about Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, calling her an "apologist" for a man "who has murdered the people of his country like cockroaches."

Gabbard met with Assad during a January 2017 trip to Syria. An Iraq War veteran, Gabbard has consistently opposed U.S. intervention in that war-torn nation, and was against President Barack Obama's request to use military force in response to Assad's use of chemical weapons against his people in 2013.

In February, Gabbard said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that "Assad is not the enemy of the United States because Syria does not pose a direct threat to the United States."

Gabbard has agreed that Assad is one of the "brutal dictators in the world." And during a CNN town hall in March, she declined to call him a war criminal but said that "if there is evidence that he committed war crimes, he should be prosecuted as such."

"As a soldier, as an American, as a member of Congress, it is my duty and my responsibility to exercise skepticism any time anyone tries to send our service members into harm's way, or use our military to go in and start a new war," she said.

On Wednesday, Harris said Gabbard had "embraced" Assad and "refuses to call him a war criminal.

"I can only take what she says in her opinion so seriously," Harris said. "And so I'm prepared to move on."

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When asked about Harris' comments after the debate, Gabbard told Cooper that it was a "disservice to voters in this country that she resorts to cheap smears rather than actually addressing her record."

Gabbard said she would "never apologize for doing all that I can to prevent more of my brothers and sister from being sent into harm's way to fight counterproductive regime change wars."

She added that, "If that means meeting with a dictator, or meeting with an adversary, absolutely, I would do it."

When asked whether she considered Assad a "torturer or a murderer," Gabbard at first declined to answer, saying, "That's not what this is about."

Cooper pressed her on the subject, saying, "On a factual basis, Bashar al-Assad is a murderer and a torturer. Do you not agree with that?"

"I don't dispute that," she said.

Analysis: Go easy on him? Sorry, Joe Biden. Not at this debate, or anytime soon.

During the debate, Gabbard said she was "deeply concerned" about Harris' record as a prosecutor.

"There are too many examples to cite, but she put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana," Gabbard said.

She also said Harris had "blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so" and "kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California."

Gabbard told Harris that she owed an apology to the "people who suffered under your reign as prosecutor."

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Harris said she was proud of her work as California's attorney general and reforms of the state's criminal justice system, "which became a national model for the work that needs to be done."

She said making the call whether to seek the death penalty "was a very difficult decision" and "not about some fancy opinion on a stage."

Wednesday was not the first contentious exchange between Harris and Gabbard.

After Harris went after former Vice President Joe Biden during the first Democratic debate in Miami for opposing federally mandated busing to integrate schools while he was in Congress, Gabbard accused Harris of making "a false accusation that Joe Biden is a racist." And she said Harris' "temperament" demonstrated that she was "not qualified to serve as commander in chief."

"Definite hard pass on taking national security advice from Assad's cheerleader," tweeted Harris campaign spokeswoman Lily Adams in response to the criticism.

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Contributing: Christal Hayes and Rebecca Morin, USA TODAY; The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kamala Harris dismisses Tulsi Gabbard as Bashar al-Assad 'apologist'