Kamala Harris reaffirmed that she owns a gun and will shoot if anyone tries to break into her home.
The vice president made the statement in an attempt to burnish her credentials as a “common-sense” pro-gun control candidate during her hour-and-a-half live-streamed fundraiser with Oprah Winfrey.
“If anyone comes into my house, I’ll shoot them,” he said, before showing off his trademark laugh.
He then expressed regret, similar to how his boss Joe Biden was trying to retract foolish statements: “I probably shouldn’t have said that. My staff will deal with that later.”
The statement made headlines on social media, including immediate condemnation from the National Rifle Association, which accused her of being a “walking contradiction.”
Kamala Harris reaffirmed that she owns a gun and will shoot if someone tries to break into her home
The vice president made the statement in an attempt to burnish her credentials as a “common-sense” pro-gun control candidate during her hour-and-a-half live fundraising event with Oprah Winfrey.
Harris said she and her vice presidential running mate, Tim Walz, are both gun owners and will find middle ground on the issue.
“I think for too long on the issue of gun violence, some people have been pushing a really false choice: either they’re pro-Second Amendment or they want to take away everyone’s guns,” he said.
“I’m in favor of the Second Amendment, assault weapons bans, universal background checks and red flag laws,” he added.
Conservatives accused her of hypocrisy on this issue for wanting to have it both ways.
Others began Photoshopping images of Harris carrying a gun.
Winfrey also featured an interview with a family involved in the shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia earlier this month.
The legendary talk show host kicked off the hour-and-a-half-long live broadcast by introducing Hollywood A-listers including: Bryan Cranston, Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Jennifer LopezTracy Ellis Ross, Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep.
“I’m smiling from ear to ear, Oprah,” said Breaking Bad’s Cranston. “I’ve never felt so much joy and optimism in a campaign in a long time.”
The statement made headlines on social media, including immediate condemnation from the National Rifle Association, which accused her of being a “walking contradiction.”
But with Winfrey at the helm of production, there were also some poignant moments, including the introduction of the mother of the first woman to die from a preventable abortion since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Sitting on Before the studio audience in the key state of Michigan, Winfrey introduced Shanette, the mother of Amber Nicole Thurman, who died in August 2022 after doctors were unable to operate on her for 20 hours.
ProPublica published a report This week, telling Thurman’s story and naming her as the first “preventable” death since the Dobbs decision.
Thurman had taken abortion pills but had not expelled fetal tissue from her body, leading to an infection and leaving her in need of a common procedure called dilation and curettage.
But that procedure was now a crime in Georgia.
“At first I didn’t want the public to know my pain. I wanted to go through this in silence, but I realized that was selfish,” Shanette said. “I want everyone to know that Amber was not a statistic. She was loved by a family, a strong family, and we would have done anything to get my baby, our baby, the help that she needed.”
Shanette recalled that when ProPublica’s Kavitha Surana first approached her, she pushed the journalist away, but recalled Surana saying, “People around the world need to know that this could have been prevented.”
“You’re looking at a mother who is broken,” Shanette told the audience Thursday night as she fought back tears.
Thurman’s sisters criticized medical professionals for failing to act to save their sister’s life.
“We trusted them to take care of her and they just let her die because of some stupid abortion ban,” said Thurman’s sister, CJ.
Winfrey then asked Harris to react.
“I’m so sorry,” the vice president said. “And the courage that you’ve all shown is extraordinary, because you’ve just learned how he died.”
Winfrey explained that the family recently learned the full story of Thurman’s botched abortion.
“And Amber’s mother told me that the word that keeps coming back to her mind is ‘preventable, preventable,’ and that word keeps coming back to her mind,” Harris said.
The Democratic candidate blamed her rival, former President Donald Trump, for appointing three pro-life judges who sought to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Harris also said exceptions for when “the mother’s life is in danger” are problematic because of how it could be legally defined.
—The problem is this: she was on the verge of death before you decided to help her? —Harris asked.
Winfrey also featured Hadley Duvall, a teenage rape survivor, who addressed the crowd.
Duvall, who was repeatedly raped by her stepfather, appears in a Harris-Walz campaign ad, criticizing Trump for appointing the judges who took away her right to an abortion.
“Hadley, you’ve been truly extraordinary,” Harris said enthusiastically.
“And the idea that those same lawmakers who are saying that health care providers should be criminalized are also saying that after a person’s body has been violated, they don’t have the right to make a decision about what happens to their body next,” Harris continued. “That’s immoral.”
Winfrey later expressed her own opinion on the matter.
“I just don’t think that those legislators, that the government, have the right to be in your belly,” the talk show icon said.
Celebrities who joined the two-hour event included Julia Roberts (left) and Jennifer Lopez (right).
An emotional Meryl Streep referred to the vice president as “President Harris,” but then asked what would happen if former President Donald Trump again refused to concede the election to the Democrat.
Throughout the evening, Winfrey launched celebrities.
“Hello, President Harris,” Streep said with a laugh. “From my mouth to God’s ears.”
Streep then asked Harris what would happen if Trump again refuses to concede the election.
“More Americans than we imagine who voted for Trump before have decided that January 6 was a step too far,” Harris said.
He added that the ‘other piece’ is that ‘the lawyers are working.’
“It’s so important that we talk to our friends and neighbors about misinformation,” he continued, also encouraging his followers to “stand up for the integrity of election workers.”
Harris also pleaded: “Don’t be afraid to vote.”
“I think there’s also something quite insidious about these attacks on the electorate in these various forms that are meant to convince people that their vote won’t matter,” the vice president said.
He assured the crowd, including Streep, that “we’re going to have a good election day.”
Oprah Winfrey (right) got popular Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (left) going in a crowd Thursday night when she took over a sound studio in Oakland County to essentially recreate her popular daytime talk show.
Ahead of the event, the Harris-Walz campaign said nearly 200,000 people had signed up to watch.
Winfrey took over a soundstage in Oakland County, Michigan, to film, and invited Michigan’s popular Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, to come and get the crowd going.
The veteran talk show host explained that the idea for the event came from Zoom calls involving different groups immediately after Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee, starting with “Win With Black Women.”
Winfrey said members of all kinds of groups were performing Thursday night, including Swifties for Harris and even Train Lovers for Harris.
“I didn’t know there were train lovers,” Winfrey mused.
He said Republicans for Harris were part of the crowd.
“I love that group even more,” Winfrey said.
The self-described independent first supported former President Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008. She endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016 but did not run on her behalf.
Winfrey has been heavily involved this cycle, first speaking at the Democratic National Convention and then hosting the event Thursday night.
He had Harris answer questions from her live, in-person audience, focused primarily on the economy.
