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Vice President Kamala Harris headlines two Seattle fundraising events for Biden Victory Fund

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2 years ago

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Vice President Kamala Harris headlines two Seattle fundraising events for Biden Victory Fund


It has­n’t been a month since Pres­i­dent Biden head­lined two fundrais­ing recep­tions in the Seat­tle area and already Vice Pres­i­dent Kamala Har­ris has done the same. 

Mon­ey is the moth­er’s milk of pol­i­tics, the say­ing goes, and pres­i­den­tial cam­paigns in this day and age demand a lot of it. Accord­ing­ly, the entire pur­pose of Har­ris’ quick trip up from Cal­i­for­nia to the Pacif­ic North­west was fundrais­ing. She stepped off Air Force Two, zipped over to West Seat­tle for one recep­tion, then prompt­ly left for a sec­ond in down­town Seat­tle, then swift­ly returned to Boe­ing Field for a flight back to California.

Unlike their pre­de­ces­sors, the Biden-Har­ris admin­is­tra­tion allows the press to send a rep­re­sen­ta­tive to these closed-door cam­paign fundrais­ing events. For this trip, The Seat­tle Times’ Claire With­y­combe was tasked with send­ing reg­u­lar updates (known in media par­lance as pool reports) to the White House press corps. 

In her first dis­patch, she described the scene where she await­ed Har­ris’ arrival: “The home where the fundrais­er is being held is on a qui­et street in West Seat­tle. The VP’s vis­it has gen­er­at­ed some excite­ment among the neigh­bors, but as of 3 PM, there were no crowds on the near­by block. Guests are stand­ing and chat­ting in the back­yard of the home, which has an impres­sive, panoram­ic view of Puget Sound. A few boats are glid­ing through the water. Guests stand near cock­tail height tables cov­ered in pale green table­cloths. I am in the garage, where cater­ing staff are prepar­ing and send­ing out an array of savory appe­tiz­ers, includ­ing crab cakes, short­rib and hon­eyed feta toast.”

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At 4:02 PM, with motor­cy­cles rum­bling, Har­ris’ motor­cade pulled up at the home of Melis­sa and Peter Evans, to cheers from the neigh­bors. Har­ris waved to them on her way into the fundrais­er. About a half hour lat­er, she began her observ­able remarks.

Har­ris told the small gath­er­ing of donors that the stakes of the elec­tion are high and momen­tum is on the Biden campaign’s side.

“In this re-elect, lis­ten, guys, we’re gonna win,” Har­ris said. “We may have bloody knuck­les when it’s over, but we’re gonna win and our coun­try is worth fight­ing for.”

Har­ris added that this piv­otal 2024 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion is not about what team you’re root­ing for but “what kind of coun­try we want to live in.”

“We believe in the promise of Amer­i­ca,” she said. “And we know that in order for us to achieve that promise and make it real we have to fight for it.”

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Har­ris empha­sized that the out­come of the elec­tion will impact peo­ple around the world. She warned that if Trump is elect­ed and Con­gress passed a nation­al abor­tion ban, Trump would sign it, where­as Biden would veto a nation­al ban. She tout­ed the Biden admin­is­tra­tion’s work to cap insulin costs for seniors and called the con­trast between the pri­or regime and the Biden admin­is­tra­tion “extreme.”

Har­ris’ remarks last­ed for a lit­tle less than thir­teen minutes.

Not long after that, around 5 PM, the motor­cade was rolling again. Peo­ple lined the blocks near the fundrais­er, hold­ing cell phones and waving.

With roads closed to accom­mo­date the motor­cade, the trip down­town took less than twen­ty min­utes, about the same length of time that the trip to West Seat­tle took. For­tu­nate­ly for Seat­tle Mariners fans attend­ing the sec­ond to last game of the home­s­tand, first pitch had already been thrown an hour before­hand and the Mariners were on their way to a 9–0 vic­to­ry over the Los Ange­les Angels of Anaheim. 

Har­ris’ entourage pulled up to the West­in around 5:16 PM. 

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Har­ris’ observ­able remarks began around 5:40 PM. She spoke from a podi­um with Amer­i­can and Wash­ing­ton State flags behind her. Her audi­ence for this sec­ond Vic­to­ry Fund recep­tion num­bered about one hun­dred and twen­ty peo­ple.

The Vice Pres­i­dent repeat­ed sev­er­al of the same com­ments from ear­li­er in the day at the Evans­es’ home about the high stakes of the elec­tion, oth­er coun­tries look­ing to the Unit­ed States as a role mod­el, the neces­si­ty of defend­ing repro­duc­tive rights, and cap­ping the costs of insulin for seniors. 

But at this recep­tion she also dis­cussed the Biden administration’s work on the econ­o­my, cit­ing “his­toric” low employ­ment and new man­u­fac­tur­ing jobs.

She char­ac­ter­ized the choice as super clear, declar­ing that many things in the world and in the coun­try are “com­plex and nuanced” but Novem­ber of ‘24 is “bina­ry.”

“There’s two choic­es. And let’s be clear, if you pull up the split screen, what we’re look­ing at,” Har­ris said. “On one side, you’ve got a for­mer pres­i­dent who open­ly prais­es dic­ta­tors and said he’d be a dic­ta­tor on day one, who has essen­tial­ly said he will weaponize the Depart­ment of Jus­tice against his ene­mies, polit­i­cal ene­mies, who has open­ly talked about how proud he is of what he did in undo­ing the pro­tec­tions of Roe v. Wade.”

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“On the oth­er side, you have Joe Biden and our admin­is­tra­tion, which has done trans­for­ma­tive work, which the his­to­ry books, if not the pun­dit­ry right now, will show has been his­toric in terms of what we have done to strength­en and grow the Amer­i­can econ­o­my and invest in the future of our nation.”

The Vice Pres­i­dent also addressed the issue of med­ical debt, say­ing that it affects so many peo­ple and it’s usu­al­ly incurred because of a med­ical emergency.

“What we are say­ing that med­ical debt can­not be used in your cred­it score,” she said.

Har­ris’ remarks were inter­rupt­ed on two sep­a­rate occa­sions by pro­test­ers opposed to Israel’s mil­i­tary oper­a­tions in the Gaza Strip. 

The first, in a red shirt, stood up and yelled what sound­ed to With­y­combe like “Chil­dren are being buried in Rafah,” then was escort­ed out of the room.

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“I appre­ci­ate your right to express what is right­ly a con­cern… we are work­ing to end this war as soon as pos­si­ble. Thank you, thank you, thank you,” said Harris. 

After the pro­test­er left, she said: “And that’s why we’re fight­ing for our democ­ra­cy. That’s exact­ly why we’re fight­ing for our democracy.”

Soon after, a sec­ond pro­tes­tor stood up and said: “Vice Pres­i­dent, when will you stop send­ing weapons to Israel?”

“Thank you, I’m talk­ing now,” Har­ris said as the pro­tes­tor kept try­ing to interrupt.

“You can stop this geno­cide Vice Pres­i­dent, you can stop this geno­cide,” the pro­tes­tor assert­ed. They were also removed from the reception.

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The Vice Pres­i­den­t’s remarks last­ed around nine­teen min­utes and con­clud­ed at 6 PM.

Har­ris returned to Boe­ing Field short­ly there­after, con­clud­ing her trip to Seattle. 



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Seattle, WA

Las Vegas and Seattle are the front-runners if NBA expansion to 32 teams happens

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24 minutes ago

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December 17, 2025

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Las Vegas and Seattle are the front-runners if NBA expansion to 32 teams happens


LAS VEGAS (AP) — The NBA plans to make a decision regarding domestic expansion in the coming year, Commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday, offering the most definitive timeline since the league began exploring the possibility of moving from 30 to 32 teams.

And if there are favorites, as has long been expected, Las Vegas and Seattle are at the top of the list.

“Not a secret, we’re looking at this market in Las Vegas. We are looking at Seattle,” Silver said before the NBA Cup final between San Antonio and New York. “We’ve looked at other markets as well. I’d say I want to be sensitive there about this notion that we’re somehow teasing these markets, because I know we’ve been talking about it for a while.”

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Expansion has been a topic for years in the NBA, and it’s no secret that Seattle — which had a team until the SuperSonics were moved to Oklahoma City in 2008 — and Las Vegas have long been clamoring for franchises.

“I think Seattle and Las Vegas are two incredible cities,” Silver said. “Obviously we had a team in Seattle that had great success. We have a WNBA team here in Las Vegas in the Aces. … I don’t have any doubt that Las Vegas, despite all of the other major league teams that are here now, the other entertainment properties, that this city could support an NBA team.

“I think now we’re in the process of working with our teams and gauging the level of interest and having a better understanding of what the economics would be on the ground for those particular teams and what a pro forma would look like for them, and then sometime in 2026 we’ll make a determination.”

Cup future

Silver revealed on Amazon Prime Video’s pregame show for the NBA Cup final that the title game of the tournament may move away from Las Vegas.

Among the sites under consideration: “Some storied college arenas,” Silver said. “We’re looking at other ways we can do this.”

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Semifinal games in the Cup will be played at No. 1 seed home sites starting next season, so the concept of a final four in Las Vegas was going to change in 2026 anyway.

Cup viewership increases

Going to a streaming service hasn’t prevented fans from watching the NBA Cup.

Saturday night’s semifinals on Prime Video — in its first season as a league broadcast partner — averaged 1.67 million viewers, a 14% increase over last season’s semifinals.

And Saturday’s doubleheader — San Antonio vs. Oklahoma City and New York vs. Toronto — saw a 126% year-over-year increase in social media views, the league said, with more than 400 million views across all platforms.

NBA Europe plans

Silver hinted that there might be some news next month on the plans for the NBA’s project with FIBA to start a league in Europe.

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That makes sense, with the league set to play regular-season games in Berlin and London next month when Orlando and Memphis go over for a pair of matchups.

“I would say we’re casting a very, very wide net right now and essentially saying to anyone who’s interested, come see our bankers, explain to us why you’re interested, how you view the opportunity, what resources you would put behind opening a team, and then we’re taking all that information back,” Silver said. “And then I think sometime in late January, or in January, we’ll be in a position to have more serious conversations with those interested parties.”

Silver said he got the news on Chris Paul being sent home by the Los Angeles Clippers the same way basically everyone else did: He checked his phone in the middle of the night.

“I will say I was dismayed just for everyone involved,” Silver said. “As you know, I’m particularly close to Chris because he was president of the Players Association many years. … I would love to see him finish off the season on another team. He’s already announced this is his last season, so I’d love to see him finish strong.”

Silver said it’s not his role “to cross-examine the participants” and added that he hasn’t talked to Clippers owner Steve Ballmer about what happened.

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“It’s an unfortunate situation that it ended the way it did,” Silver said. “So, I’m focused, and I hope Chris is now, on the future.”

Silver says WNBA talks are progressing

Silver said he and NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum are available to help the WNBA and its players strike a new labor deal, if needed.

Silver said he’s “optimistic” a deal will get done.

“I’m tracking things very closely,” Silver said. “We’re integrated at the league office. I talk to the people who are at the negotiating table on a daily basis. As I’ve said before, we, the NBA-WNBA collective, acknowledged that our players deserve to be paid significantly more than they have so far based on the increased success of the league. It’s just a question now of finding a meeting of the minds in terms of what is a fair deal. It’s going to require compromise on both sides.”

___

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA



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Seattle, WA

Why Seattle Seahawks continue to impress Mark Schlereth

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13 hours ago

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December 16, 2025

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Why Seattle Seahawks continue to impress Mark Schlereth


The Seattle Seahawks keep winning football games, but recently the offense has been showing signs of regression after a strong start to the season.

How injury to Rams star could impact clash with Seattle Seahawks

Seattle’s offensive woes were magnified in its 18-16 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. The unit had another slow first half, producing just 80 yards, and didn’t reach the end zone the entire game. The running game also produced just 50 yards on 22 carries. However, the Seahawks able to put together six drives that ended in field goals to squeak by a team they were heavily favored against.

Over its past five games, four of which were wins, the Seahawks have only one first-half touchdown. All four of those wins have come against teams starting unproven rookies or past-their-prime veterans, including a 44-year-old Philip Rivers who was playing in his first game since retiring after the 2020 season. The one loss came against Matthew Stafford and the Rams, who the Seahawks face in a pivotal NFC West showdown on Thursday.

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Have Seattle’s recent problems on offense, particularly the slow starts in the first half, become a big concern moving forward? FOX color analyst and former NFL offensive lineman Mark Schlereth doesn’t seem to think so. Schlereth explained why the bottom line with the Seahawks team is that it keeps finding ways to win football games during his weekly conversation with Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob on Monday.

“Everybody game plans you, everybody’s got really good players. It’s hard to consistently win,” Schlereth said. “I think there’s a lot to be said for finding ways to win.”

Similar to when the Seahawks beat a Vikings squad led by undrafted rookie quarterback Max Brosmer in Week 13 after a slow start on offense, Schlereth saw the victory over the Colts as the Seahawks adapting to an opponent with a good defense but a quarterback who likely wasn’t going to be able to beat them without mistakes on Seattle’s end. And to the Seahawks’ credit, they didn’t have any turnovers against Indianapolis, which entered the game tied for the eighth-most takeaways in the league.

“I talked about the way the Indianapolis approached this game (with) the quick (passing) game, getting rid of it, screens, all those different things. Sometimes when the coaching staff puts a game plan together, it’s not necessarily about scoring 50. It’s about, how do we win this game?” Schlereth said. “And sometimes the best way to win a game is to say, ‘Hey man, we just can’t let our quarterback get hit, or we just can’t take a risk with the football,’ whatever that happens to be that week, and every week it changes.

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“Sometimes you’re right, sometimes you lack some efficiency. But the bottom line to me is every week you find ways to win, that to me is the sign of a really good football team, and it’s done in a bunch of different fashions. So I just tip my cap.”

Schlereth added that one aspect that gives him confidence in Seattle’s offense to come through when needed is the connection between quarterback Sam Darnold and league-leading receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

“I will say this, the connection between Sam Darnold and (Jaxon) Smith-Njigba is special,” he said. “When they’ve got to have a big-time play, when they’ve got to have yardage, they seem to be able to find those yards, those big-time plays. That part to me is special.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Wyman and Bob weekdays from 2-7 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

Seattle Seahawks coverage

• Macdonald explains strategy behind game-winning decision vs Colts
• Seattle Seahawks’ win over Colts was ugly, which is why it was great
• Has a problem emerged for the Seattle Seahawks’ offense?
• Where the 11-3 Seattle Seahawks stand in NFC playoff picture
• Stacy Rost: Where Seattle Seahawks’ offense is trending in wrong direction

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Seattle, WA

WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Gunfire at Westcrest Park

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1 day ago

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December 16, 2025

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WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Gunfire at Westcrest Park






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