By: Taylor Christensen | Royal Oak Review | Published October 28, 2024
ROYAL OAK — Kamala Harris spoke Oct. 21 at the Royal Oak Music Theatre, touching on reaching swing voters, gun violence, national security and the political divide.
Harris was accompanied by Liz Cheney, former Republican United States representative, who is now campaigning for the Harris Walz campaign.
Cheney was asked if she is surprised to be campaigning for Harris. Cheney said that former President Donald Trump’s actions in the past in regard to Jan. 6, 2021, played into her decision to support the Democratic Party.
“He lost the election, he tried to overturn it and seize power, and then he sat in his dining room and he watched the attack (Jan. 6) on television. He watched it,” she said. “People pleaded with him to tell the mob to leave, and he wouldn’t. He watched law enforcement officers be brutally beaten.”
Cheney said that these actions make “someone never fit to be president again.”
Harris spoke to the crowd expressing her thoughts on how the past few years have been in terms of leadership.
“There is so much about this last era — when I talk about ‘turn the page,’ that’s what I am referring to, like the last decade — that has been about some powerful forces suggesting that the measure of strength of a leader is based on who you beat down, instead of what I think most of us believe, regardless of your affiliation, that the real measure of strength in a leader is based on who you lift up,” she said.
Maria Shriver, former first lady of California, hosted the discussion and asked Harris to tell people who she is as a person.
“I am a wife, I am a mother, I am a sister, I am a godmother, I love to cook,” she said. “When I was young one of my best friends in high school was being molested by her stepfather. ... I decided I wanted to take on a career and a life to take on the most vulnerable.”
In the audience, Berkley resident Cecilia Borland asked Harris a question.
“If you are elected president, and there is a majority Republican Congress, how will you work with them to make impactful and immediate progress around gun violence especially in our children’s schools?” she asked.
Harris said that the state of America and gun violence is terrifying and traumatic for children.
“Our kids are growing up where they are learning that they may be unsafe in the classroom, where they should be absorbing the wonders of the world,” she said. “I’m in favor of the Second Amendment. I have talked about the fact that both Tim Walz and I are gun owners. I also believe we need reasonable gun safety laws, assault weapons bans, red flag laws, universal background checks.”
Harris said that she is not out to take people’s guns away, but make a safer way to acquire them.
“We need commonsense gun safety laws. And I will continue — I’ve done it throughout my career — work with all of our colleagues across the aisle. And I know that we can make progress. I’m not trying to take anybody’s guns away from them. But we need reasonable gun safety laws,” she said.
On the topic of national security, former Michigan state Rep. Martin Howrylak, who represented Troy and Clawson as a Republican, asked, “What can the U.S. do politically, economically or militarily to deter Russia from continuing its war on the independent nation of Ukraine while simultaneously strengthening our own U.S. security interests?”
Harris said that she thinks that when it comes to this issue, Republican or Democrat, leaders should work together to figure out national security problems.
“There was a phrase that I’ll paraphrase that, basically, politics ends at the — at the sea line, the boundaries of our country, that there are certain things — in particular, the matters of national security — where it’s not about partisanship; it’s about where should America stand in terms of supporting our allies and standing for certain principles,” she said.
Harris continued speaking about Trump, saying that he “admires dictators and autocrats around the world.”
“Donald Trump has been very clear: He would give away the shop. He has been manipulated and is so clearly able to be manipulated by favor and flattery, including from dictators and autocrats around the world,” she said. “America knows that that is not how we stand. That is not how we fight. We fight in favor of our strength and our role as a leader in bringing the allies together and standing for foundational and fundamental principles.”
“We have to remember history —- that isolationism, which is exactly what Donald Trump is pushing — pull out of NATO, abandon our friends — isolationism is not insulation. It is not insulation. It will not insulate us from harm in terms of our national security,” Harris said.
Courtney G. Agrusa, attorney in Southfield, asked the next question.
“What would you say to people like myself who are part of these traditionally conservative communities who want to move forward, but are feeling the pressures of the political divide?” Agrusa asked.
“I believe we need to have an economy that I call an opportunity economy, where everyone has the opportunity to thrive — not just get by, but get ahead,” she said. “Let’s move forward. ... Look, I am a capitalist. I am a pragmatic capitalist. I will work as I have with the private sector. I believe we have to invest in America’s economy and in America’s industry and America’s entrepreneurs, and we can, at the same time, take care of those that are the most in need of just a little support to be able to not just get by, but get ahead.”
Cheney said that if there are people unsure about who to vote for in the election on Nov. 5, to talk openly about the policies.
“I would say that if people are uncertain, if people are thinking, ‘Well, you know, I’m a conservative, I don’t know that I can support Vice President Harris,’ I would say I don’t know if anybody is more conservative than I am, and I understand the most conservative value there is, to defend the Constitution,” Cheney said. “I would say, to me, a new way forward is this: It’s what you’re seeing up here. It’s having a president who will listen, having a president who will say, ‘I’m not necessarily sure I agree with you on this issue or that issue, but let’s talk about it.’”
To finish the discussion, Harris addressed the current stress and anxiety people are going through prior to the election.
“I say, do not despair, because in a democracy, as long as we can keep it — in our democracy, the people, every individual has the power to make a decision about what this will be, so let’s not feel powerless,” she said.
The full event can be viewed at c-span.org.
“Unfortunately for Kamala Harris, Michigan voters don’t give an ounce into what Liz Cheney thinks. President Trump is building the largest, most diverse political movement in history with support from conservatives, independents, the vast majority of Michigan rank and file teamster members, and even Democrats like RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard. Kamala Harris is weak, failed, and dangerously liberal and a vote for her is a vote for higher taxes, inflation, open borders, and more war,” Team Trump Michigan Communications Director Victoria LaCivita said in response to the Oct. 21 event.