Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr. added to Trump transition team

By Kristen Holmes and Michelle Shen, CNN

(CNN) — Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who recently suspended his own presidential campaign as an Independent, have both been added to Donald Trump’s transition team. Both endorsed Trump in recent days.

“As President Trump’s broad coalition of supporters and endorsers expands across partisan lines, we are proud that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard have been added to the Trump/Vance Transition team. We look forward to having their powerful voices on the team was we work to restore America’s greatness,” senior adviser Brian Hughes said in a statement.

Gabbard, who made history by becoming the first American Samoan and practicing Hindu to be elected to Congress in 2012, sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination and later endorsed Joe Biden after suspending her own campaign.

But since then, she made a dramatic exit from the party in 2022, criticizing what she said were Democrats’ “open border” policies and anti-police rhetoric. She has also become a vocal critic of the president and regularly appears on Fox News.

“President Biden campaigned on a message of unity, healing the partisan divide bringing the country together. He just gave a big speech saying supporters of President (Donald) Trump are the most extremist group in our country and a threat to our democracy. That’s half the country,” she said in the video announcing her departure from the Democratic Party in 2022.

Gabbard also faced criticism from local Democrats who voted to condemn her “for participating in an event that raised funds that will harm Democrats across the country” after she spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Similar to the former congresswoman, Kennedy has been a unique and occasionally controversial voice in recent politics. He first challenged Biden in the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential primary, entering the race in April 2023. In October, he ended that bid and announced he would instead run as an independent candidate.

Armed with a storied family lineage – he’s the son of the late Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of President John F. Kennedy – and a cult following from his years of environmental activism and as a leading purveyor of debunked vaccine conspiracies, Kennedy quickly found an audience with Americans disenchanted by the two major parties and a rematch between the two oldest presidents to hold the office.

Trump’s campaign went on offense early against Kennedy’s independent bid, labeling him a radical liberal and promoting his more progressive beliefs. The attacks escalated further in the spring of 2024 as more public and internal polling revealed that Kennedy took as much support from Trump as from Biden.

By May, Trump’s advisers and outside allies went from viewing Kennedy as a nuisance to a real problem that needed extinguishing. Trump himself personally weighed in, urging undecided Americans not to cast a “wasted protest vote.”

But as Kennedy’s resources dwindled, discussions for the candidate to end his campaign and potentially endorse Trump began between the former preident’s allies and advisers and Kennedy’s team began in the lead up to the Republican National Convention in July, prior to a leaked phone call between the former president and Kennedy that same month, a source familiar with the conversations told CNN.

That culminated in Kennedy’s announcement last week, in which he suspended his campaign and said he supported the former president.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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