Vice President Kamala Harris—who officially accepts the Democratic Party's presidential nomination tonight—was praised after she stopped her rally Tuesday night in Milwaukee to get medical help for someone in the crowd—and used it as a teachable moment for how her campaign differs from that of former President Donald Trump.
Harris was in Milwaukee for a rally at the Fiserv Forum, the same venue where the Republican National Convention had taken place just weeks before.
During her speech, she criticized the Supreme Court's ruling in Trump's immunity case and emphasized her commitment to upholding the nation's values. As she linked this effort to Americans fulfilling the "promise of America," Harris suddenly noticed someone in the crowd who appeared to need assistance.
She said:
"We need a medical assistant here. We need a nurse. We need a medic here, please. Let's make a path if y'all don't mind. Let's just create a path to right here."
[As medics arrived]: "Thanks for looking out for each other but let's create a path for the medics."
A few minutes later, Harris appeared to ask if the unidentified supporter was okay and, once she received an affirmation, she gave a thumbs-up and said:
"We're going to be okay."
She then used the moment to point out the inherent difference between her campaign and the Trump campaign:
"This is who we are, this is what we're about, looking out for each other. We care about each other. It's about truly understanding what 'love thy neighbor' means."
"It's about in the face of a perfect stranger seeing a neighbor or understanding what that love of each mother means. It's a big difference between what we're talking about and what's on the other side."
You can watch what happened in the video below.
Many praised Harris' response—while noting how Trump would have reacted.
Although it might have seemed unusual for Harris to hold a rally in a separate city during the Democratic National Convention, the event served as an opportunity to highlight the momentum behind her campaign, showing that she could fill not one arena but two in one night in two different cities.
Before Harris took the stage, her running mate, Tim Walz, addressed the crowd, taking the opportunity to mock Republicans and Trump for the Democrats’ strong presence in Milwaukee. He pointed out that "not only do we have massive energy at our convention, we’ve got a hell of a lot more energy at where they had their convention."
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson echoed Walz's sentiments, noting that filling arenas in two cities demonstrated that Harris was "mobilizing people and generating enthusiasm the likes of which we haven’t seen since 2008 when Barack Obama initially ran for president."
Johnson added that holding the rally in the same venue where Trump accepted the GOP nomination just a month earlier was sure to "get under his skin."
@jaketapoer/Bluesky
@BillAckman/Twitter