WILKES-BARRE, PA. – Vice President Kamala Harris spoke for around a half hour to a packed crowd at the McHale Athletic Center of Wilkes University in Pennsylvania on Friday, where she was interrupted at least twice by pro-Palestinian protesters.
“You’re supporting a war criminal,” one protester shouted about two-thirds of the way into her speech.
A second appeared shortly after the first was ushered out, and shouted for several minutes until he also was removed, crying out “Free Palestine” as he was led past the press cordon.
In response, Harris said, “I respect your voice, but right now, I am speaking,” before moving on with the rest of her address over the interjector’s din.
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Harris had been introduced by Mary Grace, a local nurse who said she was a longtime Republican who could not support former President Trump.
After thanking Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., D-Pa., Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Wilkes-Barre Democratic mayor George Brown, all of whom preceded her remarks, she began the crux of her remarks by referencing the ABC News debate from earlier in the week.
“I take it many people here watched it,” she said, as the reference drew applause.
“You’ll remember that night I talked about issues that matter to families across America, like bringing down the cost of living, investing in America’s small businesses, protecting reproductive freedom. And keeping our nation safe and secure. But that is not what we heard from Donald Trump. Instead, it was the same old show, the same tired playbook we’ve heard for years with no plan, no plan on how he would address the needs of the American people. Well, folks, it’s time to turn the page.”
Harris claimed Trump will give billionaires and large corporations “massive” tax cuts while also taking a scalpel to entitlements.
She also said the Republican wants to impose a “Trump sales tax,” which some observers claim to be a reference to the former president’s foreign tariff plans.
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US Vice President Kamala Harris during the second presidential debate. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Harris also spoke about national division, saying “we are not going back” to past years, and instead called for a “new way forward.”
“We need a President of the United States who works for all the American people and that just stops with all the trying to divide us,” she said.
“People are exhausted with that stuff.”
She also called herself the “underdog” in the race, predicting it will be tight in the crucial Commonwealth in which she spoke.
“So Pennsylvania, today I ask you, are you ready to make your voices heard? Do we believe in freedom?” Harris asked
Making the trek north on I-81 from Harrisburg, Shapiro – who many believed was the proverbial runner-up to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in Harris’ running mate consideration – offered a booming endorsement shortly before the candidate came onstage.
“We have proved … that we can ‘get sh—done’!” Shapiro shouted, referencing his gubernatorial administration’s edgy slogan of sorts.
“[We’ve invested] a historic amount in our public schools… when those kids go to and from schools, they deserve to live in safe communities,” he added.
“We want everyone to know that you are valued here, whether you choose to be a lawyer or a laborer, we want you to know you belong here [in Pennsylvania].”
“Where you come from, who you love, and who you pray to – you belong and I got your back,” Shapiro went on, adding Harris’ campaign offers a similar vision.
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Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump and Republican U.S. vice presidential nominee Senator JD Vance, U.S. President Joe Biden and Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris stand on the day of a ceremony marking the 23rd anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)
“She and I have both been prosecutors,” said Shapiro, who served as the separately-elected attorney general during the governorship of predecessor Tom Wolf.
“Kamala Harris has always been for the people… She stood up for our union sisters and brothers.
This time borrowing a line instead from Harris, Shapiro added of Trump’s tenure in the White House, “we are not going back to that.”
“When you go back and look at his record, it was … less jobs and a whole lot less freedom when Donald Trump was in charge,” he said, invoking the abortion issue and claiming women lost “basic freedom to make decisions about their own bodies.”
Shapiro went on to point to Philadelphia, just 100 miles on the other end of the Northeast Extension from where he spoke, saying that Americans “declared our independence from a king [there, once] and we are not going back.”
In response to Harris visiting the Commonwealth, PA Trump Team spokesman Kush Desai told Fox News Digital that Pennsylvanians are fed up with the rising costs of groceries, gas, and utilities thanks to the Harris-Biden administration’s disastrous inflationary, anti-energy agenda.”
“The choice between another four years of retirees scraping by off ramen under Kamala or a return to the peace, prosperity, and stability of the Trump administration couldn’t be easier for Pennsylvanians.”
At the debate in Philadelphia, Harris made reference to the approximate 800,000 Polish-Americans who reside in Pennsylvania. Outside Port Richmond and the Philadelphia area, the counties in and around where Harris rallied Friday have a sizeable such population.
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Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump speaks as he meets with Polish President Andrzej Duda at Trump Tower on April 17, 2024. ((Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images))
In Wilkes-Barre’s Luzerne County, about one-sixth of the population is Polish American, and cities like Nanticoke, Hazleton and Shamokin – in nearby Northumberland County – also host sizable communities.
In that regard, when asked, Desai said Trump is an “especially easy choice” for Pennsylvania’s Polish-Americans, noting his “blossoming friendship” with Polish President Andrzej Duda and his work with Warsaw to build a stronger alliance, including within their shared NATO status.
At the debate, Harris appeared to draw a connection between the Polish-American electorate and her criticisms of how Trump would end the war in Ukraine – which borders Poland:
“Why don’t you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch,” Harris said, referring to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
