Tulsi Gabbard to report for active duty with National Guard for two weeks: report
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Democratic Presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is taking a two-week hiatus from the campaign trail to report for active duty in Indonesia with the National Guard.
"I look forward to joining my fellow soldiers for a joint-training exercise with the Indonesian military, focused on counterterrorism and disaster response," the four-term congresswoman from Hawaii said in a statement on Monday.
The 38-year old Hawaii Army National Guard officer who served in the Iraq War told Fox News last week that "I’m proud to be able to have the opportunity to serve my country in different ways and I’m looking forward to fulfilling that duty."
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The presidential hopeful is set to depart for Indonesia on Wednesday, where her unit will participate in training exercises that include counterterrorism and disaster response.
The overseas military training deployment comes as Gabbard attempts to qualify for the third and fourth rounds of Democratic presidential nomination debates, which will be held in September and October. She’s spotlighted that she’s already reached the threshold of 130,000 contributions from individual donors. But she’s still short of the polling criteria – reaching two percent in four qualifying surveys.
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But Gabbard told Fox News “I’m not thinking about the politics of it… I have a great campaign team and volunteers who will continue carrying on the campaign in my absence.”
Gabbard is one of three Democratic candidates with military experience, along with Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report