It was yet another not-great moment for Vice President Kamala Harris when she appeared on camera in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Friday, March 22. Then, she was clapping along to a Puerto Rican protest song, then abruptly stopped after an aide with her translated the lyrics to the song, which was accompanied by music from a piano and band.
As background, Puerto Rico is a US territory captured during the Spanish-American War, and it remains impoverished despite vast amounts of American aid. Vice President Harris was visiting the island and hearing from community leaders on the island’s issues, particularly in the San Juan area, when the incident occurred.
In any case, Vice President Harris faces a group of several dozen loud protesters on the sidewalk when her motorcade arrived at the Goyoco community center in Sann Juan’s Santurce neighborhood. They protesters were carrying signs, with one, for example, saying, “Kamala Harris war criminal,” and another calling the USA and Israel “genocidal.”
Pushing past the protesters, VP Harris entered the community center’s courtyard and there found a six-person group of musicians playing a protest song accompanied by a singer and a piano. It was to that song that Vice President Harris was gleefully clapping along, then stopped in her tracks once she found out what they were saying.
The song, apparently, had to do with Palestine, a recurrent burr in the shoe of the Biden Administration and its apparatchiks, as much of the far-left is pro-Palestine and anti-Israel, whereas the Biden Administration has remained generally pro-Israel in policy and in its statements.
The band, attacking Kamala and the Biden Administration, played, “We want to know, Kamala, what did you come here for?… Long live Free Palestine and Haiti too!” Harris had been clapping, but once she found out what they were saying, she stopped clapping and folded her hands as the song continued and eventually ended.
Watch the incident here:
Before the awkward community center visit, Kamala gave a speech on how the Biden Administration has supposedly helped Puerto Ricans, saying, “What we all need to do then is just supply the community and the talent here with the capacity and the resources. And so President Joe Biden and I have been very intentional about what we are doing for the leaders and the people and the families of Puerto Rico. So far, our administration has invested over $140 billion in Puerto Rico.”
Continuing, she said, “What that means for a family, a multigenerational family, which you see behind me, is extraordinary in terms of the quality of life. The part of the challenge that Puerto Rico has faced has been what we know is, is intermittent electricity and energy sources because of these extreme weather and the installation of this smart technology, including the solar panels, will allow for more consistent energy sources for the families that are here, which again, is about an upgrade on quality of life and just the well-being and the dignity of each family to be able to satisfy their basic needs.”
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