Oprah Winfrey Hosts Virtual Rally for Kamala Harris

Oprah Winfrey interviewed Kamala Harris in a virtual rally in Michigan on Thursday night, gathering organizers and celebrity guests to help get out her campaign message.

Harris fielded questions from a studio audience in Farmington Hills, Mich., in a format that echoed “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” She addressed topics including immigration, abortion and the cost of living, without making any obvious headlines or miscues.

Meryl Streep was among the celebrities who appeared on screen.

“Hello, President Harris,” Streep said — before catching herself.

“47 days,” Harris said.

Winfrey welcomed Harris to the stage with a hug, and opened by asking her about the moment President Biden stepped aside. Winfrey said that it appeared that a veil had dropped, and that Harris had “stepped into your power.”

“Did you feel that?” she asked.

“I felt a sense of responsibility, to be honest with you,” Harris said. “There really is so much at stake.”

Winfrey called on members of the audience to discuss harrowing stories about gun violence and abortion. Among them was the family of Amber Nicole Thurman, a women who died in Georgia of preventable complications from her pregnancy.

Winfrey noted that some states allow abortion to save the live of the mother, but Harris pushed back on that.

“So is she on death’s door before you actually decide to give her help?” Harris said. “A doctor or a nurse has to say she might die any minute?”

During a discussion of gun safety, Winfrey prompted Harris to say that she owns a gun.

“I did not know that,” Winfrey said.

“If somebody breaks in my house, they’re getting shot,” Harris said, to laughter.

Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, preceded Harris to the stage.

“This is gonna be a big, close race,” Whitmer said. “Michigan is always tight.”

Jen O’Malley Dillon, the Harris campaign chair, also spoke, emphasizing that the race is “tied in all the battleground states.”

Other celebrities on screen included Bryan Cranston, Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Tracee Ellis Ross, Jennifer Lopez and Julia Roberts. Approximately 300,000 viewers watched on the Harris campaign’s YouTube channel.

Rock said he first donated to Harris when she was running for district attorney 20 years ago.

“I been writing her checks for a long time,” Rock said. “I want to bring my daughters to the White House to meet this Black woman president. I’m ready to turn the page, man, all the hate and the negativity — it’s gotta stop.”

Later on, Roberts spoke about restoring America’s reputation around the world.

“I get to travel internationally a lot, and I want people to say, ‘Oh, you’re American!’ and not ‘Oh, how’s it going?’” she said.

The event, dubbed “Unite for America,” was billed as a gathering of groups that formed on Zoom and other platforms in the days after Harris entered the race in July. Win With Black Women kicked off the trend, followed by groups like Comics for Kamala, Cat Ladies for Kamala, Win With Black Men, and White Dudes for Harris.

Harris has faced some criticism from Republicans and the political press for holding few unscripted appearances, and sitting for only a few interviews.

In a fundraising email sent out just after the event, the Trump campaign blasted Harris for raising money from “Hollywood hacks” like Winfrey and Jamie Lee Curtis. The message also said she was relying on a “shadowy cabal of far-left billionaires” and “deep state operatives” like President Obama and Hillary Clinton.

“But I don’t need any of these leftist lunatics on my team, Patriot,” the message added. “I only need YOU!”

Winfrey held a similar event for Joe Biden in October 2020, which was part of her “OWN Your Vote” series of virtual town halls. She was also a surprise speaker at the convention in Chicago last month.

In closing the event, Winfrey made an appeal to “all decent people.”

“This is the moment for people who are tired of all of the bickering and all of the name calling, people who are exhausted by the craziness and the made up stories and the conspiracies,” she said. “You know that we can do better and that we deserve better. You know this. I know you know this… We’re better than this.”