Demonstrating how divisive her campaign has become, the Trump War Room tweeted out a video clip of Gabbard attacking her own party with a “100” emoji. It received 4,500 retweets and 15,000 likes.

“She sort of seems to be filling a pretty strange lane. Is there a part of the party that hates the party?” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). “It’s a little hard to figure out what itch she’s trying to scratch in the Democratic Party right now.”

The Hawaii congresswoman’s presence on the debate stage is becoming a headache for the party as she uses the platform to appeal to isolationists, dissatisfied liberals and even conservatives. She has managed to secure a spot on the debate stage as more mainstream candidates like Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Gov. Steve Bullock (D-Mont.) failed to meet polling and donor thresholds to participate.

Gabbard met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2017 and has repeatedly attacked Clinton’s foreign policy views, grating on Democrats who’ve broadly supported the center-left international platform of Democrats in recent decades.

“Assad is the butcher of Damascus. Assad is someone who violated all international norms in using chemical weapons against his people. How one thinks that a conversation with him is going to change the course of events in Syria is naive at best,” fumed Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).

“She has views on foreign policy that are so outside the mainstream as to be a real liability to the Democratic Party,” said another Democratic senator, who requested anonymity to candidly discuss the party’s issue with Gabbard. “It is corrosive to have folks on that stage who represent views that are clearly not right.”

Gabbard’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

While Gabbard isn’t exactly gaining traction in the polls, she does appear to have a loyal following. The vast majority of her support comes from male voters, according to FiveThirtyEight. She’s also more likely to attract support from Democratic primary voters who supported President Donald Trump in 2016, according to a November poll from The Economist/YouGov.

Given Gabbard’s obvious play to appear at war with the party establishment, several senators declined to discuss her candidacy — before panning her privately. She has awkward relationships with the Hawaii congressional delegation and faced a primary challenge before saying she wouldn’t run for reelection.

Earlier this year, Gabbard authored an op-ed that suggested Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) went too far in questioning a Trump judicial nominee, without naming Hirono. When asked about Gabbard's candidacy Thursday, Hirono paused and squinted.

"Look at my face," she said. "I have nothing to say about Tulsi Gabbard."

Beyond her isolationist foreign policy that appeals to some libertarian-leaning voters, the other notable aspect of Gabbard’s candidacy is her eagerness to blindside other candidates, many of whom are friends with sitting senators and members of Congress.

On Wednesday, she accused Buttigieg of being “willing to send our troops to Mexico to fight the cartels,” a comment that Buttigieg said was “outlandish even by the standards of today’s politics.” And after she lit into the party and the “foreign policy establishment represented by Hillary Clinton and others,” Harris fired back that Gabbard had cozied up to Trump strategist Steve Bannon after the 2016 election and “spent four years full time on Fox News criticizing President Obama.”

Other than an exchange over marijuana legalization between Cory Booker and Joe Biden, the debate would have been relatively insult-free if Gabbard had not been on the stage. But her rhetoric alone left the impression of a party at war with itself.

“In a Democratic primary it is usually better to sell your own accomplishments as opposed to try to tear down your colleagues,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.).

“There’s a lot of people I’m surprised are still on the stage at this point. [Like] Tulsi Gabbard,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.). “She’s trying to get some momentum. And that’s … how she does it. I’m not sure that’s the right way to go.”

Gabbard’s staying power on the Democratic stage has surprised the party, but is emblematic of a broader frustration that there are simply too many candidates in the debates and the race overall. Candidates have to hit polling and donor thresholds to participate, and Gabbard has hit them for four of five times.

"I don’t want to pick only on her. I think that every single debate has had far too many candidates,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). “And I think most Democratic primary voters feel strongly the same way. It’s been badly handled.”

The growing annoyance with Gabbard began with Clinton’s remarks last month that Gabbard might run as a third-party candidate and play spoiler in the election. Gabbard has since ruled out a run as an independent. But there’s lingering concern she might not play nice in a general election after flaying the Democratic Party in front of a national TV audience.

"She keeps assuring people that that's not the case,” said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). “I hope that her word is good.”