Vice President Kamala Harris harnessed the star power of one of her most powerful surrogates — and one of America’s foremost interviewers — to lay out a powerful pitch for her campaign on Thursday, as she passionately confronted pressing issues during a livestream forum with Oprah Winfrey.
The event, “Unite for America,” was hosted by Ms. Winfrey and drew hundreds of thousands of viewers, bolstering a strategy that Ms. Harris’s campaign sees as crucial to reaching voters in battleground states and beyond in November.
The event brought together members of over 100 online groups that have coalesced around Ms. Harris since she became the Democratic nominee, including White Dudes for Harris, Cat Ladies for Kamala and Latinas for Harris. Also joining virtually were celebrities that included Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Jennifer Lopez, Tracee Ellis Ross and Meryl Streep.
But the most remarkable moments in the roughly 90-minute forum came when Ms. Winfrey did what she does best: orchestrating an interview that connects with everyday Americans whose experiences illustrate the strife of a country craving empathy. The discussions were heavy at times, with members of the audience — in person and at home — in tears.
Ms. Harris has not often spoken off the cuff or at length about many issues since she catapulted to the top of the ticket after President Biden dropped out of the race. Here she addressed questions from the audience and Ms. Winfrey about issues like immigration and gun violence, and what would happen if her opponent, former President Donald J. Trump, didn’t accept the results of the election should he lose a second time.
Ms. Harris spoke more elaborately than she has before on the effects of illegal immigration — a key issue for voters and a vulnerability in her campaign. She cited the devastating effects of fentanyl, overwhelmed border patrol agents and strained resources for prosecuting transnational criminal organizations. She pointed out that a bill that Mr. Trump had helped kill in Congress would have helped confront these problems, and she vowed to resurrect that bill and sign it.
On abortion rights, one of her strongest issues after a Supreme Court with three Trump-appointed justices overturned Roe v. Wade, she yielded to those who have been affected.
The mother and sister of Amber Thurman spoke publicly for the first time about her death by sepsis after waiting 20 hours, an outcome of the state’s abortion ban, for a hospital to treat her complications from an abortion pill. Ms. Thurman’s story, reported by ProPublica, has crystallized the consequences of restrictions on reproductive health.
“Amber was not a statistic,” her mother said as members of the crowd teared up. “She was loved by a family, a strong family, and we would have done whatever to get my baby, our baby, the help that she needed.”
Ms. Harris, who met with the family before the event, used the moment to highlight Mr. Trump’s abortion record. She will travel to Georgia on Friday to deliver remarks on reproductive rights. “It’s a health care crisis,” she said on Thursday. “It’s a health care crisis that affects the patient and the profession.”
Also in the crowd at the forum, held outside Detroit, was Natalie Griffith, a 15-year-old student who was shot twice in algebra class by a classmate during a campus attack on Sept. 4 at Apalachee High School, also in Georgia. Her mother, Marilda Griffith, sobbed telling the story of how that day unfolded.
“The whole world needs to hear that we women, that have our children — we have a job,” Ms. Griffith said. “That job is to protect our children. That job is to protect our nation.”
Ms. Harris agreed, citing the “bone-chilling” sight of a sea of students raising their hands when, on tours across the country, she asks if they have participated in active-shooter drills.
Meryl Streep asked Ms. Harris how she was preparing for the “long slog of shenanigans” that may come should Mr. Trump not accept the election’s results and incite violence reminiscent of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Ms. Harris said her team was ready for Mr. Trump to challenge the election: The “lawyers are working.” But she encouraged people to talk with their friends about misinformation, to protect poll workers and to not be afraid to vote.
Several hundred people attended the event at Studio Center. Other notable attendees included the state’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and Jotaka Eaddy, a collaborator with Ms. Winfrey on the event and founder of Win With Black Women, the first group to draw tens of thousands of people to a Zoom fund-raiser for Ms. Harris’s campaign.
Ms. Winfrey’s skill of drawing out the humanity and vulnerability of her subjects was on display, including with the fiercely guarded vice president.
At the beginning of the interview, Ms. Winfrey said she had noticed a change in Ms. Harris since she entered the race, as if a “veil dropped.” She asked if Ms. Harris had felt that, too. “I felt a sense of responsibility, to be honest with you, and with that comes a sense of purpose,” Ms. Harris said.
Midway through the conversation, Ms. Harris acknowledged that she may have gotten too comfortable when Ms. Winfrey said she hadn’t known that Harris was a gun owner until the debate. “If somebody breaks in my house, they’re getting shot,” Ms. Harris said, then caught herself. “I probably should not have said that,” she said, laughing. “But my staff will deal with that later.”
An hour before the event, Mr. Trump’s campaign sent a statement accusing Ms. Harris of campaigning “with an out-of-touch celebrity, further confirming that the Democrat party is not the party of hardworking Americans — it is the party of elitists.”
Ms. Winfrey, a registered independent who had never spoken at a party convention before, gave a full-throated endorsement of Ms. Harris last month at the Democratic National Convention.
Ms. Winfrey’s endorsement is a coveted one, as she has largely shied away from politics, reserving her influence for a few major races. In 2007, she endorsed for president Barack Obama, then a senator of Illinois, and hit the campaign trail for him in Iowa.
In announcing the virtual rally, Ms. Winfrey said she wanted to use it to motivate people to vote.
During the event, which was also aimed at mobilizing volunteers to make phone calls and to knock on doors in their communities, Ms. Harris’s campaign manager stressed that it was still a “razor-thin race.”
Added Ms. Winfrey to the audience: “We love having you here, but the rah-rah moment is going to end, and then we need to get to work.”
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