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.”
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.”
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.
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.”
“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.
“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.
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.