Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, held a star-studded rally hosted by talk show legend Oprah Winfrey on Thursday in a bid to dazzle voters, as rival Donald Trump criticized Jewish Americans for not voting for him.
Hollywood stars including Jennifer Lopez, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Chris Rock and Ben Stiller beamed remotely to lavish praise via screens on the United States Vice President.
Sitting on a chat-show-style stage, Winfrey started by asking Harris about what seemed a sudden burst in confidence — “a veil or something dropped” — after she replaced President Joe Biden as the nominee.
“We each have those moments in our lives when you have to step up,” the 59-year-old Harris replied at the live-streamed “Unite for America” event.
The pair hugged as Harris arrived on stage at the rally in Michigan, one of the seven crucial battleground states that will decide the knife-edge November 5 election.
Harris urged Americans to unite against the “powerful forces that would try to divide us”, represented by Republican former president Trump.
The Democrat then talked through her key campaign points, ranging from abortion to the economy and immigration and gun control, as audience members told stories about their experiences.
Former prosecutor Harris also made a pitch to gun owners, a key part of the electorate in a country with more firearms than people, even as she called for an end to high-powered assault weapons used in a string of school shootings.
“I’m a gun owner too, if somebody breaks in my house they’re getting shot,” Harris said with a laugh, before adding: “I probably shouldn’t have said that… my staff will deal with that later.”
TV superstar Winfrey, who also spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, said as she introduced Harris that she felt “hope and joy rising.”
Groups including “Swifties for Harris” (made up of fans of Harris-backing pop star Taylor Swift) and “Cat Ladies for Kamala” (women mocking comments by Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance on childless people) tuned in remotely.
The US election is effectively neck-and-neck as Harris and Trump try to eke out every vote with 47 days left until polling day.
Harris got a boost from a New York Times/Siena poll showing her marginally ahead in Pennsylvania, perhaps the most crucial of all the swing states, but the survey also put her and Trump level nationwide.
Her glitzy event contrasted with the darker tone taken by Trump at an anti-Semitism event in the capital, Washington.
