TUCSON, Ariz. – First lady Jill Biden spoke for just 14 minutes in the second episode of Women for Biden-Harris. tour — but that didn’t stop pro-Palestinian protesters from interrupting him four separate times.
“It’s genocide, Jill!” One of four demonstrators in Tucson screamed Saturday morning as he was forcibly removed from the venue by security forces.
In the words of the first lady, the main focus should be on women’s problems, including abortion rights. on the ballot in Arizona Come November
“He is led by extremist republicans Donald Trump pass laws that prevent women from getting the health care they need, including IVF,” Biden said.
However, within 13 seconds of starting his remarks, the first protester raised his voice.
Less than two minutes later, the second one followed. Within 30 seconds of the second break, the first lady gave an explanation to keep her speech short.
“I apologize for coming and going so quickly,” Biden said.
“Windstorms in Nevada are affecting my travel,” he added shortly after ushering a demonstrator out of the theater.
And as he began to gather steam in his speech, a third protester shouted.
Kaliana Venet, 34, is an activist with the Arizona Palestine Solidarity Alliance, one of the organizations behind Biden’s disruption in Tucson. He was not impressed by the first lady’s words about women.
“When you talk about women’s issues, when you talk about women in positions of power and when you watch women in Gaza undergoing surgery without anesthesia, watching their children being pulled from the rubble, starving to death… it’s absolutely shameful.” Venet said.
The first lady’s plan to hold the second leg of her tour in Tucson may have been bold from the start. The college campus, home to the University of Arizona, is home to many young voters like Venet. And the survey shows young voters they are particularly unhappy with the way her husband, President Joe Biden, is handling the war.
“He should have seen it coming,” Venet said.
The unemployed activist voted for Biden in 2020, a decision she now says she’s “very ashamed of.”
The president has been mobbed by pro-Palestinian protesters at his public events for months the team is now taking steps to protect him from public embarrassment for his conduct Israel-Hamas war. Biden had to move to smaller events, the venues of which were hushed up until the last minute to avoid protesters.
The plan seems to be working for him, with no downtime in the past five weeks. But now Biden’s team may have to come up with a similar plan for the first lady.
The White House has yet to announce where the next leg of the first lady’s Biden-Harris Tour for Women will be, perhaps in keeping with the president’s strategy of keeping exact location details from the media and public until the last possible moment.
But if Biden wants to effectively deliver his message to women voters without interruption, he may want to take a page from his husband’s book and avoid college campuses and college towns.
Monica Alba, Carol E. Lee, Peter Alexander and Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner contributed.