WASHINGTON — 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 Thursday, as she passionately confronted pressing issues during a livestream forum with Oprah Winfrey.

The event, “Unite for America,” was hosted by Winfrey and drew hundreds of thousands of viewers, bolstering a strategy that Harris’ campaign sees as crucial to reaching voters in battleground states and beyond in November.

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Members of Over 100 Online Groups Join

The event brought together members of over 100 online groups that have coalesced around 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 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.

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 Joe Biden dropped out of the race. Here she addressed questions from the audience and Winfrey about issues like immigration and gun violence, and what would happen if her opponent, former President Donald Trump, didn’t accept the results of the election should he lose a second time.

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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 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 Georgia’s abortion ban, for a hospital to treat her complications from an abortion pill. 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.”

Harris Highlights Trump’s Abortion Record

Harris, who met with the family before the event, used the moment to highlight 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 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 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,” Griffith said. “That job is to protect our children. That job is to protect our nation.”

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.

Streep asked Harris how she was preparing for the “long slog of shenanigans” that may come should Trump not accept the election’s results and incite violence reminiscent of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

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Harris said her team was ready for 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 Winfrey on the event and founder of Win With Black Women, the first group to draw tens of thousands of people to a Zoom fundraiser for Harris’ campaign.

Winfrey’s skill of drawing out the humanity and vulnerability of her subjects was on display, including with the often guarded vice president.

At the beginning of the interview, Winfrey said she had noticed a change in Harris since she entered the race, as if a “veil dropped.” She asked if Harris had felt that, too. “I felt a sense of responsibility, to be honest with you, and with that comes a sense of purpose,” Harris said.

Midway through the conversation, as Harris discussed her support for the Second Amendment, she acknowledged that she may have gotten too comfortable when 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,” 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, Trump’s campaign sent a statement accusing 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.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Erica L. Green/Kenny Holston
c. 2024 The New York Times Company