Kamala Harris appears rattled after heckler interrupts her drawing boos at Kalamazoo rally

Vice President Kamala Harris appeared briefly rattled after she was heckled by an anti-Israel protester at a rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan on Saturday — even as the crowd turned to boos to drown out the critic.Harris, 60, had begun speaking after former first lady Michelle Obama’s withering attack on her rival and was riffing on the stakes of the election when she got interrupted.“We are fighting for America’s future, and we understand the opportunity we have before us to turn the page on the fear—” Harris said, as she got cut off.

“No more Gaza war!” a man in the crowd was heard yelling repeatedly.Harris stopped her speech as the protester shouted her down — and then looked behind her as rally-goers erupted into a shower of boos against the heckler.Soon, her supporters began countering with chants of “Kamala.”“‘On the topic of Gaza, we must end that war,” Harris replied after a brief pause during the commotion.Outside where her rally took place Saturday, a handful of anti-Israel demonstrators marched and chanted against the vice president.

Michigan has one of the largest Arab-American populations in the US and Democratic operatives have long been anxious about the political ramifications of the Israel-Hamas war on the 2024 election there.The Wolverine State saw over 100,000 Democratic primary voters mark themselves as “uncommitted” in a dramatic protest against President Biden earlier this year.

Former President Donald Trump has a razor-thin 0.2 percentage point edge in Michigan, per the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate.Michigan has 15 Electoral College votes.Recently, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, a Democrat, confirmed that he won’t back either candidate in the presidential election.

Dearborn is the only city in the US that is majority Arab.Hours prior to the rally, Israel fired off a barrage of strikes against some 20 targets in Iran as retaliation against Tehran’s bombardment of just under 200 missiles earlier this mo...