WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris attended a star-studded campaign event held on Thursday night Oprah WinfreyWho had to prompt the Vice President to get to the point during a vague answer to a policy question asked by the audience.
The two-hour “Unite for America” livestream event from Michigan was intended to highlight grassroots organizers supporting Harris and give voters an opportunity to ask about her platform — but the Democratic presidential nominee offered no new policy proposals.
At one point in the evening, Harris was asked what she would do to secure the southern border.
“So that's a wonderful and important question. You know, my background was as a prosecutor, and I was also the elected attorney general for two terms of a border state. So this is not a theoretical issue for me. It's something that I've actually worked on,” Harris said in her three-minute answer that ended with criticism of Republicans for not passing a bipartisan border bill.
“So to answer Justin's question,” Winfrey interjected.
The billionaire talk show host asked, before Harris interrupted, “Now that that bill has gone in and not passed, will you introduce it?”
“Absolutely,” the Vice President replied.
“Once I'm elected president of the United States, I will make sure that bill gets to me and I will sign it into law,” Harris said, though she did not lay out any new policies to address the crisis at the southern border.
The “Unite for America” event aimed to reach a large number of voters through multiple streaming platforms simultaneously, including Winfrey's appearance and on social media.
Several celebrities also attended the event, including Chris Rock and Ben Stiller, who said they would vote for Harris.
The 2024 Democratic candidate spoke at length about abortion, saying it is “immoral” to say a person “has no right to make decisions about what happens to their body” and that it is a “violation.”
Harris also reiterated that she would offer new homeowners $25,000 toward their down payment, a tax cut for new small business owners and an increase to the child tax credit.
Winfrey, who endorsed Harris and spoke at the Democratic National Convention, remarked that she had come across as more dynamic and confident since 2014. President Biden drops out of the race,
Harris spoke about how she felt after Biden suspended his bid. “You know, there come moments in all of our lives when it’s time to move on,” she said.
“I felt a sense of responsibility, to be honest with you, and with that came a sense of purpose.”
“The beauty of democracy is that as long as we can maintain it, the beauty of democracy is that each of us has the power,” Harris said, taking a veiled dig at Trump.
Prior to the live stream with Winfrey, the vice president had given a total of six media interviews as a 2024 candidate — the fewest of any recent presidential candidate.
He waited more than a month to present a list of policy proposals, but said he was “not Joe Biden” and “we can’t go back to Trump.”
His campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, acknowledged the race against Trump was close and urged voters to get out to the polls.
“Even though we have this extraordinary surge of enthusiasm that the Vice President and Governor Walz are seeing everywhere, we are still within the margin of error rate. It's on a par,” he said.
“It's a tie in Michigan. It's a tie in all the battleground states. So we all have to find a path, multiple paths, to get to 270 electoral votes. That's what we're focused on.”
