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| Senator Kamala Harris speaks to a crowd at Cuyahoga Community College Metro Campus on Saturday during whirlwind campaign stop in Cleveland. |
Senator does not pull punch, uses rhetorical question to call out Trump as racist
By R. T. Andrews
U.S. Senator and Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris blitzed Cleveland Saturday afternoon as the countdown to the Nov. 3 presidential election entered its final ten days.
Her plane landed at Burke Lakefront Airport where Harris was met by a number of local officials including both Rep. Marcia Fudge and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, whose district stretches east from Toledo into Lakewood and western Cleveland.
Following a brief stop at a clothing boutique in Lakewood, Sen. Harris's entourage, which included senior Biden adviser Symone Sanders, spent about ten minutes outside the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in downtown Cleveland. The Senator stood for in the middle of East 30th and used a cordless mic to speak briefly to part of a massively long line of early voters snaked around the building on Euclid Avenue, down East 30th Street and around the block.
"It’s Kamala, and I came to Cleveland to say thank you! Thank you for voting and voting early. Your vote is your voice, your voice is your vote. There is so much at stake. Don’t let anyone ever take your power. The power of your voice is so important. You are going to make the difference. You are going to make the decision about your future, about your family’s future. It is through the voice of your vote. And you have the power — the power is with the people. … I just came to say thank you. Thank you, Cleveland."
This was the first Saturday you could vote early and in person in Cuyahoga County, and the Board of Elections is the only place you can do it.
The Senator's itinerary also included a stop at Zanzibar restaurant in downtown Cleveland where she met with a group of politically active black preachers.
Later in the afternoon, about 3:15, Sen. Harris spoke to about 50 people in a courtyard on the campus of Cuyahoga Community College. The speech was live streamed.
One notable moment came when Harris talked about the crisis of systemic racism.
"So we're in the midst of a public health crisis, an economic crisis, and a long overdue reckoning on racial injustice in America. And on this issue, let's be clear, again two very clear choices. On the one hand you have Joe Biden, who has the courage and the commitment and the knowledge of America's history to speak the term 'Black Lives Matter.' On the other hand you have a Donald Trump, who will never speak those words. On the other hand you have a Donald Trump who stood on that debate stage last debate and refused to condemn white supremacists and then doubled down and said, 'Well, stand back and stand by.' And then people say, 'Well, you know do you think he's a racist?'"
The audience laughed a bit at this question, which Harris then answered. "Yes."
"Because you see," Harris continued, "we are also not just looking at one-off comments, we're looking at a pattern." She also mentioned Trump's "both sides" remarks after Charlottesville.
Harris finished her remarks at 3:39 pm and walked a short rope line saying hello to guests as a wonderful youth drumline played.
The Harris entourage, then returned to Burke Lakefront Airport where she took two questions before boarding her plane at 4:20 pm.
The first one was about what she heard from the people she interacted with today.
"That probably one of the highest and biggest concerns is what's happening in terms of the surge around the cases, the COVID cases," Harris responded. "And they want to know that we have a plan. They want to know that there is going to be some adherence to safe plans around not only modeling good behavior but also what we're going to do to get control of the virus around testing, contact tracing, distribution of a vaccine when we get a safe one, And then the economy. I mean one in six Ohio small businesses has shut down."
"These are real issues, big issues, and with no relief in sight," Harris added. "So that's what they want to know there's gonna be some leadership that sees them and understands what they're struggling with right now. And people are struggling with the basics, struggling with health care, struggling with rent, struggling with putting food on the table. And Joe and I, you know, listen, I mean, we believe that there is a solution, but you have to have leadership in place that takes a firm grasp on what's going on, speaks truth to the American people, embraces science, and then implements the plan. And our plan is about testing and treatment and contact tracing. But it's also about getting the economy, working back up again, but doing that in a safe and a smart way instead of denying the existence of this virus and like Donald Trump did ... saying we're rounding the corner. You look at anything that all of you are publishing and reporting — everybody knows we are not rounding the corner. There's a fight that we're dealing with right now. And we've had an utter failure of leadership out of Donald Trump."
Harris was then asked about Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court nomination.
"I am voting no," Harris confirmed. "I believe and have from the beginning it's an illegitimate process. … Joe Biden, and the American people, and I all agree that the people of our country should be able to complete this election, which is in 10 days, and then let the winner of the election make a decision about who will serve for a lifetime on the highest court in our land."
[Barrett was confirmed today with only Republican votes, the first in U.S. history a Supreme Court Justice has been so confirmed with not a single affirmative vote from the opposing party.]
Harris's plane took off from Burke Lakefront at about 4:35 pm.
This story compiled largely from the pool reporting of Henry Gomez, political reporter for BuzzFeed News and a former politics reporter for the Plain Dealer.
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This article originally appeared in The Real Deal Press. Republished with permission.
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