Vice President Kamala Harris visited Seattle on Saturday to raise money for what she described to supporters as a high-stakes reelection bid.
In two speeches to supporters — one at a home in West Seattle and the second at the Westin downtown — Harris pushed what she described as an "extreme" contrast between her running mate, President Joe Biden, and former President Donald Trump when it comes to issues like health care.
While she ran through a slate of high-profile issues including abortion, the Affordable Care Act and the economy in her remarks, she did not mention Trump's conviction this week in the hush-money case surrounding the payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Harris' second speech was interrupted twice by protesters against the war in Gaza.
The vice president landed at Boeing Field around 3:30 p.m., where she was greeted by local elected leaders before heading to her first stop at a West Seattle home on Genesee Hill.
Speaking to a group inside, Harris said the stakes of the November election are high and that momentum is on the Biden campaign's side.
"In this reelect, listen guys, we're going to win," Harris said. "We may have bloody knuckles when it's over, but we're going to win and our country is worth fighting for."
Harris said Biden would veto any national abortion ban Congress might pass, and touted the administration's work to cap insulin costs for older adults.
Harris spoke at a second fundraiser at the Westin in downtown Seattle from about 5:40 p.m. to 6 p.m., repeating many of the same talking points from her earlier speech. But she also pointed to the Biden administration's work on the economy, citing "historic" low employment and new manufacturing jobs.
Harris said that many things in the world and in the country are "complex and nuanced" but the election in November is "binary."
"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," she said.
"On the other side," she continued, "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."
Her remarks at the Westin were interrupted on two separate occasions by protesters against the war in Gaza.
The first, in a red shirt, stood up and yelled, "Children are being burned 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," she said.
Soon after, a second protester stood up and said: "Vice president, when will you stop sending weapons to Israel?"
"Thank you, I'm talking now," Harris said, as the second protester was escorted out.
Those who disrupted Harris' speech — later identified as Kevin Bocek and Arin Flaster of Jewish Voice for Peace Seattle — said after the event they hoped to convey their outrage and sadness with the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and thousands of Palestinian deaths.
"It was important to do a civil disruption to get the message across to the VP and everyone attending that weapons and military aid need to stop being sent to Israel," Bocek said.
After the two were escorted out of the room, police officers handcuffed them outside. They were released after about 15 minutes, Flaster said.
Harris last visited Seattle in August, when she spoke at an event about the Biden administration's climate and clean energy efforts and to mark the anniversary of the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act.
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