When Harris was asked to respond, the California senator came ready.

“I think that it's unfortunate that we have someone on this stage that is attempting to be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States, who during the Obama administration spent four years full time on Fox News criticizing President Obama,” she shot back.

"That’s ridiculous," Gabbard interjected, before getting bowled over by Harris.

Harris also noted that Gabbard had met with President Donald Trump during the transition period after the 2016 election, saying she "buddied up to Steve Bannon to get a meeting" with Trump and castigating Gabbard for her unwillingness to label Syria's Bashar Al-Assad a "war criminal."

"What we need on the stage in November is someone who has the ability to win," Harris continued, evolving the attack into a pitch for unity.

But Gabbard dug in, handing ammo to the Trump campaign’s war room in the process, as she accused Harris of "continuing to traffic in lies and smears and innuendos because she cannot challenge the substance of the argument that I'm making, the leadership and the change that I'm seeking to bring in our foreign policy."

Harris' strike, she continued, "only makes me guess that she will, as president, continue the status quo, continue the Bush-Clinton-Trump foreign policy of regime change wars, which is deeply destructive." Gabbard then pointed to her military service as the root of her opposition to the military industrial complex that she decried the party for maintaining.

"I take very seriously the responsibility that the president has to serve as commander in chief, to lead our armed forces and to make sure always — no, I'm not going to put party interests first. I will put the interests of the American people above all else," she said.

Gabbard and Harris first sparred during a debate this summer, with Gabbard blindsiding Harris with an attack on her record as a prosecutor in California.

The congresswoman has long been a vocal critic of her party, resigning from her position as DNC vice chair in 2016 to endorse Sanders and lambasting the party for its treatment of the insurgent candidate.

After a trip to Syria in 2017 during which she met with Assad, Gabbard has been reluctant to condemn his regime, a stubbornness that has raised eyebrows. She has also been featured in Russian media and propaganda, while her critiques of Democrats have earned her fans on the right.