Kamala Harris responds to pro-Palestinian protesters with a shrug in turbulent start to book tour
Former Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off her book tour by battling with pro-Palestine protesters.
Harris' new memoir ‘107 days’ details the highs and lows of her unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign. The book was released earlier this week surrounded in controversy as the former vice president offers new criticisms of Joe Biden and his White House.
While speaking to a crowd of 1,500 in Midtown Manhattan, Harris distanced herself from the Biden administration by noting she would have handled the Israel-Hamas war differently than her former boss.
Approximately 20 minutes after the event began, a protester started screaming over Harris by accusing the former vice president of supporting genocide, according to the Washington Post.
‘The blood of the Palestinians is on your hands,’ one male protester shouted at Harris.
The crowd of supporters drowned out the protester by shouting over him. Harris then began discussing her position on Gaza in her book before another demonstrator interrupted her remarks.
‘You’re not letting me talk! I respect your right to talk, but you’re not letting me speak!’ she told the protester.
‘Let’s bring the temperature down,’ Harris added. ‘Unlike the current president of the United, I understand what’s happening right now in Gaza, what is happening to the Palestinian people is outrageous and it breaks my heart. I get it.’
Kamala Harris' new book '107 Days' gives a behind-the-scenes look at her unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign
Pro-Palestine protesters interrupted the first event for Harris' book tour in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday night
Harris distanced herself from the Biden administration by noting she would have handled the Israel-Hamas war differently than her former boss
As the chaos continued within the crowd, Harris shouted back: ‘I’m not president right now. There’s nothing I can do!’
Throughout the 2024 election, the Democratic party remained divided over Biden’s policy on Israel amid the war in Gaza.
Harris tried to defend her history regarding Israel by claiming she rebuffed the country for their treatment of Palestinian civilians in Gaza five months after the October 7th attack.
‘I was the first person at the highest level of our United States government or administration to talk about the fact that the people in Gaza were starving,’ she said. ‘I took a lot of heat from the administration for doing that.’
‘There are a lot of people that did not like that I spoke out so forcefully and candidly about my concern about what was happening in Gaza.’
Harris also slammed the Trump administration’s handling of the war in Gaza. She said Trump is allowing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do whatever he wants despite civilian deaths.
‘Donald Trump has given Netanyahu a blank check to do whatever he wants,’ she noted. ‘Anybody see that spectacle of the UN yesterday?’
During the 2024 campaign, Harris often faced protesters at rallies who accused the Biden administration of supporting ‘genocide’
At that point a third protester interrupted Harris by stating the crisis in the Middle was the ‘fault’ of the former vice president, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
‘I understand the pain that that person just expressed,” Harris replied. ‘I understand what this moment is it, whether it be what’s happening in Gaza or just so many things right now that are absolutely unconscionable and so painful to know could happen and that our president and our government is standing by and allowing people like [Vladimir] Putin and Kim Jong Un and Xi [Jinping] to get away with whatever.’
‘They’re laughing at us right now. They’re laughing at us. And so I get it, but I would like to continue with the conversation,' she said.
While speaking on the campaign tail back in 2024, Harris regularly faced protesters at campaign rallies who accused the Biden administration of supporting ‘genocide’ in Gaza.
