Vice Presidential Pool Reports of August 9, 2024

VP travel pool #1: Pool swept and loaded into motorcade

Pool has been swept and the motorcade is moving as of 2:50 p.m. local time (3 hours behind EST). We are headed to an off the record stop. Will share more information when able.

VP travel pool #2: Campaign office stop

Motorcade arrived at a local campaign office at 3:09 p.m in north Phoenix.

Uneventful drive to the north end of Phoenix. A few scattered onlookers were taking photos and video as we pulled in.

VP travel pool #3: campaign office stop

VP Harris and Gov. Walz entered a small campaign office in North Phoenix at 3:17 p.m.

About 16 volunteers were making homemade signs for the rally later today; a dozen were gathered around a big table in the center of the room and the rest were at a smaller table in the corner.

Signs on the wall read:
"Kamala and the Coach"
"We are not going back 2024"
"Madam Vice President" with the Vice x'd out
"Cat Ladies for Kamala"

Signs they're making include:
"In my Kamala era"
"Coconut>orange"
"Mamala"
"A woman's place is in the White House"
"We're ready for the Kamala-mentum"

Harris and Walz spoke to each volunteer in the room.

Harris walked up to the big table who was busy making signs and said, "Hey guys, what's happening? I know you know I'm here."

One woman showed Harris her cat earrings, to which she responded, "good for you."

"We're obsessed with coconut," two women said to Harris, who laughed. The two students go to Loyola Marymount and told Harris they will be voting in their first election. They also told Walz they think he's so funny.

"I feel a bit like a snowman," Walz said, adding that he needs to get back to Minnesota and weather "forty below."

Harris spoke about volunteering for a campaign when she was younger and doing it in a "room similar to this one." She said the volunteers then were "stuffing envelopes at the direction of my mother."

"This reminds me of that."

We're loading back into the vans at 3:27 p.m. I'll send more quotes on our way to the next stop, the arena for the rally.

VP travel pool #4: more from the campaign office

Motorcade was on the move as of 3:31 p.m.; the volunteers joined the motorcade to drive to the rally.

Some more quotes from the campaign office stop:
One of the college students told Walz that X thinks "this guy is the best guy ever."

Harris:

"I'm gonna reminisce. My first campaign... it was a long time ago, it was all about like literally mail."

"There was a big long table, similar to this, and volunteers from all different parts of the town would come to this place."

"They would (unintelligible) around and sit around at a table like this stuffing envelopes — I told you, I'm aging myself — stuffing envelopes at the direction of my mother. My mother's not — she's watching. But this reminds me of that. Just everybody coming together and seeing each other, and seeing themselves in each other."

Walz said it was his first time asking Harris for a selfie. The two took a selfie in front of the "Kamala and the Coach" sign on the wall before press was ushered out.

Hope Walz attended the stop and stood against the wall in a Harris-Walz camo hat (h/t to radio pooler Deepa Shivaram for the eagle eyes).

Background from the last stop:

On behalf of the Harris-Walz campaign:

Vice President Harris and Governor Walz dropped by the North Phoenix coordinated campaign office to meet with volunteers making signs. The Vice President and Governor invited those in attendance to join them in the motorcade to the rally.

VP travel pool #5: arrived at rally site

We arrived at the Desert Diamond Arena at 4:02 p.m after an uneventful drive.

On behalf of the Harris-Walz campaign:

Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are delivering remarks at a campaign rally at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, AZ.

Pre-Program

Governor Stephen Roe Lewis, Gila River Indian Community
Carolyn van Horn, Regional Organizing Director
Mayor Corey Woods, Tempe
Mayor John Giles, Mesa
Mayor Kate Gallego, Phoenix
Representative Greg Stanton
Representative Ruben Gallego
Senator Mark Kelly
Former Representative Gabby Giffords

Program

Governor Walz
Vice President Harris

VP travel pool #6: speaking program has begun

Press entered when Rep. Greg Stanton was speaking. The crowd cheered very loudly when he brough up Ruben Gallego's campaign.

The campaign has turned their signage into fans for the crowd. Your pooler also spots some "Coach" signs.

VP travel pool #7: over 15,000 attendees

Ruben Gallego stopped in the middle of his speech because someone needed medical attention.

Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was joined her husband, Sen. Mark Kelly on the stage. The crowd chanted her name when they got to the podium and again in the middle of her speech.

More than 15,000 people are attending the rally, per the campaign.

The rally is being streamed live on the Harris campaign's social media pages.

VP travel pool #8: Walz speech + joke about crowd sizes

Sen. Kelly brought up attacks by former President Trump and J.D. Vance on Walz's military service. "Here in Arizona, we don't attack people for their service to our country," Kelly said.

Walz began by talking about the crowd sizes at the rallies earlier this week. "But Arizona -- just couldn't leave it alone, could you?"
"It's not as if anybody cares about crowd sizes or anything."

The crowd began chanting "USA! USA!" during Walz' speech.

Walz said this might be the biggest political rally in the history in the state of Arizona.

The crowd began chanting hope (Walz's daughters name). He said, "I'm not crying, you're crying."

Reminder that this is being livestreamed.

VP travel pool #8: Harris speech interrupted by Gaza protestors

[APP Note: This is Report #9. See reporter's comment in Report #10.]

Harris was interrupted during her speech by pro-Palestinian protesters chanting "free, free Palestine" and other messages in support of Gaza. The crowd chanted "USA! USA!" over the crowd. She continued speaking and the protesters continued chanting "free, free Palestine!"

Harris stopped her speech to address the protesters.

"Hold on. Here's the thing: we are all in here together. I'm told an extraordinary number of folks who are here together because we love our country. We're here to fight for our democracy, which includes respecting the voices that I think we are hearing from."

Let me just speak to that for a moment and then I'll get back to the business at hand.

"I have been clear: now is the time to get a ceasefire deal and get the hostage deal done. Now is the time. And the president and I are working around the clock every day to get that ceasefire deal done and bring the hostages home. So, I respect your voices, but we are here to now talk about this race in 2024."

VP travel pool #10: immigration

Correction: last pool report should have read #9. Numbering is accurate going forward.

Harris addressed immigration:

"We know our immigration system is broken and we know what it takes to fix it: comprehensive reform. That includes strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship."

"But Donald Trump does not want to fix this problem. Be clear about that: he has no interest or desire to actually fix the problem. He talks a big game about border security, but he does not walk the walk."

VP travel pool #11: speech ended, rolling to OTR stop

Harris wrapped up her speech at 6:08 p.m. Rep. Ruben Gallego, Sen. Mark Kelly and former Rep. Gabby Giffords joined her and Walz on the stage at the end of the rally.

The pool has loaded back into the motorcade and is rolling as of 6:30 p.m. We are headed to an off the record stop, I will share more information when I'm able.

VP travel pool #12: arrived at small business

The motorcade arrived at Cocina Adamex, a Mexican restaurant in Phoenix, at 6:53 p.m. Pooler spotted several onlookers on our drive over.

On behalf of the Harris-Walz campaign:

Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are stopping by Cocina Adamex, a local Latino-owned small business. Congressman Ruben Gallego is also in attendance.

VP travel pool #13: restaurant stop

VP Harris, Gov. Walz, Rep. Gallego and Hope Walz are picking up Mexican food. They joked about Walz' lack of spice tolerance.

"No spice," Hope Walz said about Gov. Walz

"It's the Scandinavian in me," he said to Rep. Gallego.

"You know what picante is for him? Black pepper," VP Harris said, referring to Gov. Walz.

VP travel pool #14: rolling to RON

The motorcade is rolling as of 7:07 p.m., headed to RON.

VP travel pool #15: RON and lid

Pooler spotted two onlookers in sweats watching the motorcade and a drive-thru worker leaning out the window.

After a short drive, the motorcade has return to RON at 7:11pm.

We have a lid as of 7:15.