Vice Presidential Pool Reports of June 1, 2024

Pool report 1

3:05 pm It's an overcast day in Seattle, with some blue sky peeking through. The home where the fundraiser is being held is on a quiet street in West Seattle. The VP's visit has generated some excitement among the neighbors, but as of 3 pm, there were no crowds on the nearby block. Guests are standing and chatting in the backyard of the home, which has an impressive, panoramic view of the Puget Sound. A few boats are gliding through the water. Guests stand near cocktail height tables covered in pale green tablecloths. I am in the garage of the home, where catering staff are preparing and sending out an array of savory appetizers, including crab cakes, shortrib and honeyed feta toast.

Pool report 2

4:02 pm. We hear the rumbling of motorcycles. Catering staff peer out of the garage to try catch a glimpse. We hear cheering from the neighborhood outside and I walk to the open side door of the garage, where I can see the VP walking into the house. She gives a wave to the neighbors.

Pool report 3

At about 4:30 pm I am ushered into the living room of the home where the Vice President is speaking. The fundraiser is hosted by Melissa and Peter Evans.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-WA, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-WA, are among the group.

I hear Harris speak for about 12 to 13 minutes. She says the stakes of the election are high and momentum is on the Biden campaign's side.

"In this re-elect, listen guys, we're gonna win," Harris said. "We may have bloody knuckles when it's over but we're gonna win and our country is worth fighting for."

Harris says the election is not about what team you're rooting for but "what kind of country we want to live in."

"We believe in the promise of America," she says. "And we know that in order for us to achieve that promise and make it real we have to fight for it."

Harris said the outcome of the election will impact people around the world. That if Trump is elected and Congress passed a national abortion ban, Trump would sign it. Biden would veto a national ban. She touts the Biden administration's work to cap insulin costs for seniors.Says the contrast between the prior administration and the Biden administration is "extreme."

At 5 pm we are on our way downtown. People lining the blocks near the fundraiser, holding cell phones and waving.

More to come

Pool report 4

About 5:16 pm the motorcade arrives at the Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle, where the Vice President is attending a Biden Victory Fund event. As we entered downtown people were congregating on the streets watching the motorcade go by, holding up cellphones.

At 5:40 I am escorted into the large conference room where the Vice President is speaking from a podium, behind her are two American flags and two flags of the state of Washington.

There about 120 people in the room, most seated. I see her speak for roughly 19 minutes.

The Vice President repeats several of the same talking points from earlier in the day at the Evans' home about the high stakes of the election, other countries looking to the US as a role model, abortion, and capping the costs of insulin for seniors. But here she also discusses the Biden administration's work on the economy, citing "historic" low employment and new manufacturing jobs.

She says the election couldn't be more clear, that many things in the world and in the country are "complex and nuanced" but November of '24 is "binary."

"There's two choices. And let's be clear, if you pull up the split screen, what we're looking at," Harris said. "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. On the other side, 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."

The Vice President also addressed medical debt, saying that it affects so many people and it's usually incurred because of a medical emergency.

"What we are saying that medical debt cannot be used in your credit score," she said.

Her remarks were interrupted on two separate occasions by protesters against the war in Gaza.

The first, in a red shirt, stands up and yells what sounds like "Children are being buried in Rafah," then is 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. Thank you, thank you, thank you." After the protester left, she said: "And that's why we're fighting for our democracy. That's exactly why we're fighting for our democracy."

Soon after, a second protestor stands up and says "Vice President, when will you stop sending weapons to Israel?"

"Thank you, I'm talking now," she says as the protestor keeps speaking and continues her speech.

"You can stop this genocide Vice President, you can stop this genocide," the protestor said, and that second protestor is also escorted out.

After the Vice President wraps up her speech, at roughly 6 p.m., I'm ushered out of the room.