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US Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris sat with Oprah Winfrey for a livestream rally dubbed Unite For America on September 19, 2024. The event saw Harris cover a wide range of topics including immigration, reproductive rights, abortion, and gun control.
Following the event, journalist and podcaster Nick Sortor took to X to allege that Kamala Harris had been reading lines from a teleprompter during her interview. Sortor attached a video snippet of Harris and Winfrey talking, with a teleprompter running lines.
The tweet, which received 10.8 million views and 75K likes, was quickly debunked by many, who pointed out that the teleprompter was placed behind the VP, making it impossible for her to see it. Others added that, given its positioning, the teleprompter was most probably for Winfrey.
Unite For America had a 400-person live audience and 200,000 virtual attendees which included celebrities like Chris Rock, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, and Ben Stiller, to name a few. Streep let out a Freudian slip as she addressed Kamala Harris as "President Harris", while Rock said he looked forward to bringing his daughters to the White House to meet a "Black woman president."
Inside Kamala Harris's interview with Oprah
US VP Kamala Harris sat down for a 90-minute interview with Oprah Winfrey in Michigan, where she discussed her stance on policies concerning immigration and reproductive rights.
When asked how she would tackle border control, Harris brought up her opponent Donald Trump for killing the legislation that would have paved the way for funding more law enforcement at the border.
“The bill would have allowed us to have more resources to prosecute transnational criminal organizations. Donald Trump called up his folks and said, ‘Don’t put that bill on the floor for a vote.’ He preferred to run on a problem instead of addressing the problem. And he put his personal political security before border security,” she said.
Another huge segment of the interview revolved around reproductive rights. The family of Amber Nicole Thurman, who died in 2022 after improper medical care to treat complications from abortion pills, was present at the event. Her death came just weeks after Georgia's abortion ban.
Thurman's mother and sisters blamed Trump for her death, saying that she wasn't just a statistic and she had a loving family who would have done anything to help her.
In response, Kamala Harris stood by her previous statements that Trump appointed the three Supreme Court judges who overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 to ban abortions in all states.
Hadley Duvall, a 22-year-old abortion rights activist, who had been r*ped by her stepdad as a child, was also in the audience. Duvall had previously appeared in Harris's new campaign ad and also gave a speech about abortion rights at the Democratic National Convention in August. In the event in Michigan, she praised Kamala Harris for her pro-abortion stance.
"You can't wait until it's too late to care about reproductive healthcare, because then it's too late. Thank you for hearing us and seeing us when the Supreme Court won't," Duvall said.
Kamala Harris about gun control
Another point discussed during the event was gun control. Oprah Winfrey said she was surprised to hear that Kamala Harris was a gun owner, a fact that the VP had mentioned during her presidential debate with Trump on September 10. Harris laughingly replied:
“If somebody breaks in my house, they’re getting shot. Sorry. Probably shouldn’t have said that. But my staff will deal with that later."
She added that she was not trying to take away people's guns. She advocated for more stringent laws surrounding guns, pointing out that assault-style rifles did not belong on the streets.
Winfrey also asked Kamala Harris how she felt about her overnight transformation from President Joe Biden's running mate to the presidential candidate when Biden dropped out of the race in July. Harris said that she felt a "sense of purpose," adding:
"We each have those moments in our lives when it's time to step up. I felt a sense of responsibility, to be honest with you, and with that comes a sense of purpose.”
Following her Thursday rally, Kamala Harris continued her campaign across the US. On September 20, she spoke in Madison, Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Trump continued his campaign with a rally in North Carolina on September 22, just seven weeks before the election on November 5, 2024.
