(Headline USA) Vice President Kamala Harris was interrupted by anti-Israel protesters during a campaign rally in Detroit on Wednesday, leading to an awkward stand-off between Harris and the leftist activists.
Harris took the stage and began railing about former President Donald Trump when the group of radical Hamas-backers began heckling her, yelling, “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide! We won’t vote for genocide.”
At first, Harris tried to appease the protesters by acknowledging them.
“I’m here because we believe in democracy,” she claimed. “Everyone’s voice matters.”
But when the protesters continued, Harris snapped, “I am speaking now. I am speaking now.”
The line seems to have been an attempt by Harris to remind voters of her vice presidential debate against then-Vice President Mike Pence in 2020, when she said during cross-talk with Pence, “I’m speaking.”
She has deployed the pedantic catchphrase several times since to flex her authority, sometimes as hecklers were being escorted out by security.
This time, however, the leftist protesters didn’t get the memo and continued their chant.
The yellow schoolbus aficionado then proceeded to chide them like young children, irritably presenting a false dichotomy of options to hector them into silence with her finger-wagging.
“You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking,” she said.
The rally crowd then started a “Kamala” chant of their own, drowning out the protests before campaign staffers escorted the protesters out of the venue.
The awkward moment was a timely reminder of Harris’s ineffective leadership, which has been largely glossed over by a desperate astroturfing campaign to give her the appearance of unstoppable campaign momentum.
It also underscored the divide within the Democratic Party over the Biden administration’s policy toward Israel in its ongoing military conflict in Gaza—a rift that could easily derail Democrats’ efforts to guard critical swing states in the Midwest.
Tens of thousands of primary voters in states such as Michigan cast protest votes against President Joe Biden earlier this year over his continued support for Israel.
Layla Elabed, one of the organizers of the protest vote in Michigan, warned they would do the same to Harris unless she adopts an anti-Israel position.
“Michigan voters want to support you, but we need a policy that will save lives in Gaza right now,” Elabed told Harris, according to NBC News.
“I meet with community members every day in Michigan who are losing tens and hundreds of family members in Gaza,” she added. “Right now, we need an arms embargo.”
Harris already signaled her willingness to capitulate with her selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over Jewish Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who appeared to be the favored selection until Muslim voters expressed their displeasure.
However, she now treads a delicate line as she risks alienating Jewish voters elsewhere. That potentially puts Northeastern states that Democrats have long taken for granted—including New York and New Jersey—into serious contention for Trump, who has held unexpectedly large rallies in both.
