Vice President Kamala Harris sat down for an interview session with the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia yesterday. Her appearance went smoother than one former President Donald Trump made back in July. Back then, he questioned whether Harris was indeed “Black” and made headlines for talking about “Black jobs”.

It was Harris’ second major interview since she replaced Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket. Although her answers proved less controversial than some of Trump’s, one section did manage to incur MAGA wrath. 

Harris was asked about security around Presidential candidates, particularly in light of what appears to have been a second assassination attempt on Donald Trump last weekend. 

“Do you have full confidence in the Secret Service?” Harris was asked.

“Yes, I do,” she replied, before highlighting that many people in the US do not have the luxury of security protection. 

“But I mean, you can go back to Ohio. Not everybody has Secret Service and there are far too many people in our country right now who are not feeling safe,” she said, referencing an increase in bomb threats in Springfield, Ohio. 

“I mean, I look at Project 2025 and I look at, you know, like the, Don’t Say Gay laws coming outta Florida. Members of the LGBTQ community don’t feel safe right now.

“Immigrants or people with an immigrant background don’t feel safe right now. Women don’t feel safe right now. And so, yes, I feel safe.”

Right-wing howling

Many on the right were outraged that Harris would pivot from a question about nominee security to highlighting unsafe communities and ‘Don’t Say Gay’. This included the gay GOP group, Log Cabin Republicans.

It tweeted, “There have been two assassination attempts on President Trump in two months and Kamala Harris responds to a question about it by fear-mongering around an imaginary ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law that doesn’t exist. 

“Does Kamala Harris take this threat seriously?”

 ‘Don’t Say Gay’ is Florida’s controversial ‘Parental Rights in Education’ bill, which now applies across all school years. It basically bans discussion about queer life and issues within the classroom. It exists, even if it’s not officially called “Don’t Say Gay’. 

Others expressed similar hyperbolic outrage, blasting Harris as “evil” for showing concern for those without the luxury of secret service protection.

The Log Cabin Republicans fail to mention Harris also talked about calling Donald Trump following the latest incident with a gunman.

“I checked on him to see if he was OK,” she said. “And I told him what I had said publicly, that there’s no place for political violence in our country.”

Earning the Black vote

Elsewhere in her interview, Harris talked about wanting to boost opportunities for Black Americans to increase generational wealth. She said she also didn’t take the community’s vote for granted. It’s been noted that Donald Trump has been trying to win support among Black men.

“I think it’s very important to not operate from the assumption that Black men are in anybody’s pocket,” Harris said yesterday. “Black men are like any other voting group. You gotta earn their vote. So I’m working to earn the vote, not assuming I’m going to have it because I am Black.”

Harris also criticized the way Trump and his running partner, JD Vance, have spoken about Haitian immigrants in Ohio recently. 

“This is not new in terms of these tropes; this is not new in terms of where it’s coming from. Whether it is refusing to rent to Black families, whether it is taking out a full page ad in The New York Times against five innocent Black and Latino teenagers — the Central Park Five — and calling for their execution, whether it is referring to the first Black president of the United States with a lie, the American people deserve more and better,” she said. 

You can watch the whole interview with Harris below.

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JD Vance roasted for his reaction to Laura Loomer’s “curry” comments about Kamala Harris

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