The campaign manager for Vice President Kamala Harris attempted to ease the tension over comments made earlier this week when Harris told Oprah Winfrey she would shoot someone who broke into her house.
During the interview livestreamed on Thursday, Harris was asked about the recent school shooting in Georgia and her own proud admission during the debate with former President Trump that she is a gun owner. "If somebody breaks into my house," Harris said as her voiced turned to her trademark laugh, "they’re getting shot," to which Winfrey replied, "I hear that, I hear that."
Harris then quipped, "My staff will deal with that later," in a curious admission of sorts that the vice president had gone off script after months of carefully orchestrated media interactions.
"Here’s my point, Oprah. I’m not trying to take everyone’s guns away. I believe in the Second Amendment," Harris added. She said the gun control measures she supports are "just common sense." Harris’ campaign manager, Keisha Lance Bottoms, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Friday that it was a "joke."
"It was a joke, and she knew that we would still be talking about it today, but I think it's important that people know that the vice president respects the right to bear arms, that she supports the Second Amendment, but she wants responsible gun ownership and she wants our communities to be safe," Bottoms said.
Since assuming President Joe Biden’s role at the top of the Democratic Party’s ticket, Harris has tried to walk back previous comments that would put off much need independent voters. In 2019 she told Jimmy Fallon she supported the government confiscating certain guns via a buyback program. “A buyback program is a good idea. Now we need to do it the right way. And part of that has to be, you know, buy back and give people their value, the financial value."
Harris’ pivot on guns and her party’s consternation over the ubiquity of firearms in American life have put the campaign in an awkward position. In order to capture the so called “blue-wall” Harris needs to win blue collar voters in Wisconsin and Michigan, yet gun rights are important to many in the Midwest.
The New York Times noted on Friday that while other Democrats have attempted to promote their second amendment bona fides while campaigning, such as Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jason Kander of Missouri, and Jared Golden of Maine, none of them went so far as to joke about shooting someone.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.