Harris Shuts Down Chants of 'Lock Him Up'

Vice President Kamala Harris held two rallies in two states with newly minted running mate Tim Walz on Wednesday—and she shut down two very different interruptions.

• In the first rally, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the vice president spoke about how she knows Donald Trump's "type" from her history as a prosecutor, but she stopped a chant of "Lock him up" before it had a chance to get going, Mediaite reports. "Well, hold on, you know what? The courts are going to handle that part of it," she said after somebody shouted the line. "What we're going to do is beat them in November." Harris also stopped a "Lock him up" chant, mimicking Trump supporters' chant of "Lock her up" during his 2016 race against Hillary Clinton, when she spoke with Walz in Philadelphia on Tuesday, reports the Washington Post. President Biden didn't discourage the chant at a rally last month before he dropped his reelection bid, the Post notes.

• Later Wednesday, Harris was interrupted by people protesting the war in Gaza when she spoke in an airport hangar outside Detroit, the Hill reports. According to the New York Post, they were chanting, "Kamala! Kamala! You can't hide! We won't vote for genocide." Harris replied, "I'm here because we believe in democracy. Everyone's voice matters, but I am speaking now. I am speaking now." After the chants continued, she said, more sternly, "You know what, if you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I'm speaking." The Detroit Free Press reports that she "then delivered a withering stare at the protesters and did not relent for some time." The AP reports that the protesters were eventually escorted out of the venue after a "tense confrontation" with Harris supporters.

The campaign said around 15,000 people attended the Michigan event. Politico reports that around 12,000 attended the event in Eau Claire, just across from Minnesota, Walz's home state. "Isn't it good to have a candidate who can pronounce the name correctly?" he quipped about Eau Claire. (More Kamala Harris 2024 stories.)