DETROIT – Several pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted the Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris During a rally at the airport hangar on Wednesday night — prompting him to repeat his familiar line.
Halfway through the vice president’s speech, about half a dozen protesters started shouting: “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide! We will not vote for genocide.”
Harris initially acknowledged the protesters, borrowing a strategy used by President Joe Biden’s pro-Palestinian demonstrators earlier this term. rutinely inwas interrupted its eventswhile trying to draw attention to the remarks by affirming the protesters’ right to express their views.
“I am here because we believe in democracy. Everyone’s voice is important,” he said. “But I’m talking now. I’m talking now.”
“I’m talking,” Harris told then-Vice President Mike Pence during a cross-talk at a vice presidential debate during the 2020 election cycle.
As the protests continued, Harris’s tone grew stronger.
“You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say so. Otherwise, I’m talking,” Harris said, helped by several thousand attendees who chanted “Perfection” to quell the protests.
Campaign workers soon removed the protesters from the venue.
The interruptions — the first Harris has faced at a rally since replacing Biden on the Democratic ticket — suggested the war in Gaza remains a salient issue among voters in Michigan, which has the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the country.
Leaders of the Secure National Movement, which advocates “non-loyal” voting on Democratic primary ballots rather than voting for Biden, spoke briefly to Harris at the Detroit rally.
“Michigan voters want to support you, but we need policies right now that will save lives in Gaza. Every day I meet with community members in Michigan who have lost dozens and hundreds of family members in Gaza. Right now, we need the arms embargo,” said Layla Elabed, co-founder of Uncommitted. , he told Harris, according to the group.
Protesters weren’t the only disruptions at the event, which was the third stop for Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz. as a ticket. Some of the thousands of attendees were outside without shade throughout the event, which appeared to be a few heat-related episodes. Both Harris and Walz had to stop their remarks to call for 911 on behalf of the participants.
In addition to those moments, Harris and Walz gave stump speeches similar to the ones they gave earlier in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, highlighting their middle-class backgrounds, calling themselves “joy warriors” and criticizing Trump and his run. comrade, Sen. JD Vance, for an agenda they suggested would erode personal liberties.
“On Monday, I officially became the Democratic nominee for president of the United States,” Harris said before pausing to cheers from the crowd.
As chants of “lock him up” broke out in the crowd, Harris quipped, “Hang on. Here’s the thing: the courts will decide this. We’re going to beat him in November.”
Walz delivered some of his high political positions with a simple and uniquely Midwestern appeal. He made his position on reproductive rights clear and suggested that the government should not be in the exam room with women and their doctors. She also shared her family’s IVF journey, including failed treatments.
“I can still feel the pain of it to this day,” Walz said.
On gun violence, he took a similarly direct approach: “Our children should be free to go to school without being shot in their classrooms.”
Waltz also went on to call his Republican opponents “weird.” a wherd oDemocrats accepted.
“These ideas they put out there are weird as hell. No one is asking for it. No one is asking for it. we ask [for] fair shot,” Walz said. “We’re asking for health care and child care. We’re asking for education. We’re asking for safety on our streets.”