‘Answer the question’: Oprah calls out Kamala
Kamala Harris made a stunning remark about guns, spoke about abortion and was called out by Oprah Winfrey during a star-studded rally in Detroit this week.
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Oprah Winfrey was forced to step in and redirect Kamala Harris after the Vice President offered a rambling response to a question about border security during a star-studded rally.
The billionaire talk show legend, who endorsed Harris at the Democratic National Convention last month, hosted the live-streamed “Unite for America” forum on Thursday.
The pair hugged as Harris arrived on stage for the event in Detroit, Michigan, one of the seven crucial battleground states that will decide the knife-edge November 5 election.
Hollywood stars including Jennifer Lopez, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Chris Rock, and Ben Stiller beamed in remotely to lavish praise on the Democratic VP.
Harris spoke at length about her key campaign points, ranging from abortion to immigration and the economy, but there was one answer that prompted an interjection from Winfrey.
“When you become president, what will be your specific steps to strengthening the border?” asked an audience member.
“So it’s a wonderful and important question. I, you know, my background was as a prosecutor, and I was also the elected attorney general for two terms of the border state. So this is not a theoretical issue for me. This is something I’ve actually worked on,” Harris began in her three-minute answer, which ended with her blasting Republicans for not passing the bipartisan border bill.
“So to answer Justin’s question,” Winfrey probed.
“Now that that bill is gone and hasn’t passed, will you introduce–” she continued, before Harris cut in.
“Absolutely,” Harris replied.
“When I am elected as president of the United States, I will make sure that bill gets to my desk and I will sign it into law,” she added, without offering any specific policies on how to solve the crisis at the southern border.
The Vice President also made a surprising pitch to gun voters at the event on Thursday, admitting: “I’m a gun owner ... if somebody breaks in my house, they’re getting shot”.
“I probably shouldn’t have said that... my staff will deal with that later,” she continued.
The 90-minute discussion began with Winfrey asking Harris about what seemed a sudden burst in confidence after she replaced President Joe Biden as nominee.
“We each have those moments in our lives when you have to step up,” Harris replied.
Harris urged Americans to unite against the “powerful forces that would try to divide us”, represented by Republican former president Donald Trump.
Shortly before the event began, Mr Trump’s campaign fired a shot at Harris, accusing her 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.”
‘Head examined’: Presidential race on a knife’s edge
The US election is effectively neck-and-neck as Harris and Trump try to eke out every vote with 47 days left until polling day.
Harris got a boost from a New York Times/Siena poll showing her marginally ahead in Pennsylvania, perhaps the most crucial of all the swing states, but the survey also put her and Trump level nationwide.
Her glitzy event contrasted with the darker tone taken by Trump at an anti-Semitism event in the capital, Washington.
Trump spent much of time repeating his grievance over the fact that Jewish voters in the United States have historically leant towards the Democrats.
“If I don’t win this election... in my opinion the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss,” Trump said.
Accusing Harris of failing to back Israel after the October 7 attacks by Hamas, Trump said that “more than any other people on Earth, Israel, I believe, has to defeat her.”
Trump added that “any Jewish person that votes for her... should have their head examined.” The Gaza war could be a crucial one in the election.
The US “Uncommitted” movement, which opposes the Biden-Harris administration’s military and political support for Israel’s war on Gaza, said on Thursday it would not be backing Harris in the election.
It also threatens Harris’s narrow margins in Michigan, where there is a large Arab-American community against the war.
Harris’s running mate Tim Walz meanwhile on Thursday met with the families of Americans held hostage by Hamas since the attack.
He said after the meeting that Biden and Harris would “continue doing everything possible to bring them home.”
Trump and Harris are also battling for support from US unions. The powerful Teamsters union on Wednesday declined to endorse a presidential candidate, in a blow for Harris as it had a quarter century tradition of endorsing Democrats.
But Harris’s campaign said however that local Teamsters branches representing one million people had since said they endorsed her.
- With AFP
Originally published as ‘Answer the question’: Oprah calls out Kamala
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