Vice Presidential Pool Reports of January 22, 2024

VP travel pool report #1: Departure for Milwaukee

Good morning from a frigid tarmac under sunny skies at JBA.

Vice President Kamala Harris begins her nationwide tour in support of abortion rights today.

We are heading to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the vice president is expected to privately meet with health care providers and families that have been affected by a legal back-and-forth over abortion restrictions in the battleground state.

The VP will also give remarks at a local union hall. M2 landed at 9:33. VP boarded AF2 with a wave and we are wheels up shortly at 9:39 am.

It is 22 degrees here and 25 degrees where we are headed.

VP travel report #2: Landed in Milwaukee/OTR visit

AF2 landed in snowy Milwaukee at 10:43 am.

The VP came back to chat OTR for several minutes before we departed and several members of her staff also dropped by throughout the flight.

After agents moved her SUV closer to the plane because of all of the ice on the tarmac, VP disembarked at 11:02 am. She met with several clapping and cheering greeters and got into her car at 11:04. We are rolling to event venue at 11:08.

Greeters list TK.

VP travel pool report #2a: Greeters

From WH:

On Background from a White House Official:

Upon landing at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, the Vice President was greeted by Mayor Cavalier Johnson, Lt. Governor Sara Rodriguez, State Secretary Sarah Godlewski , State Attorney General Josh Kaul , County Executive David Crowley, Milwaukee County, and Congresswoman Gwen Moore, U.S. House of Representatives.

VP travel pool report #3: Arrival, protesters

VP's motorcade pulled up at the venue, a hall for a local painter's union, at 11:35 am after passing a crowd of dozens of people waving Palestinian flags.

Inside the room, a big sign says TRUST WOMEN. I'll tweet - "x" - a picture @KatieRogers.

We are holding while VP meets privately with people who have been affected by restrictive abortion laws.

VP travel pool report #4: VP speech begins

VP began speaking at 12:50 p.m., and took the stage to chants of "MVP."

There was a small disruption in the crowd but she kept talking.

The speech will be streamed on the White House website and her office has also distributed excerpts.

The venue has hundreds of attendees but there is also a lot of empty space toward the back of the room.

Some info and color:

The "Fight for Reproductive Freedoms" program included songs from a local choir; a speech from Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat who is running for another term this year; a speech by the state's lieutenant governor, Sara Rodriguez; by Admiral Rachel L. Levine, the assistant HHS secretary; Tanya J. Bradsher, the deputy VA secretary; Rep. Gwen Moore, who said she once sought an abortion before Roe; and Dr. Amy Domeyer-Klenske, a health care provider who said that current laws are threatening patient health and lives.

Of the VP, Moore said: "I knew her before she was the VP. I knew her when she was a United States Senator. And let me tell you something, she was the author of our bill called the Momnibus," a bill that Moore was meant to support women who were "at risk of losing their lives" in childbirth, because of the high mortality rate, particularly for Black women, in the United States.

"Our vice president is someone who is there for women at every stage of their lives," she said. "This is about bodily autonomy, y'all."

An animated Moore also asked the crowd to greet her to "make sure she knows that her weary steps are worth it to talk to us."

VP travel pool report #5: VP speech concludes

VP speech ended at 1:10 p.m. She has some media interviews and a meet and greet with supporters before we head back to Washington.

The VP was very animated and got attendees to applaud and stand up several times. She is currently taking pictures with attendees who are very excited.

Some quotes:

"These extremists are trying to take us backwards but we're not having that. We're not having that."

"As we face this crisis, as we are clear eyed about the harm, let us also understand who is responsible, shall we? The former president hand picked three Supreme Court justices because they intended for them to overturn Roe. .. Proud? Proud? proud that women across our nation are suffering? Proud that women have been robbed of a fundamental freedom? Proud that doctors could be thrown in prison for caring for their patients, that young people today have fewer rights than their mothers and their grandmothers? How dare he?"

Full list on program speakers from WHAssistant Secretary Admiral Rachel Levine, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS)
Deputy Secretary Tanya Bradsher, U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA)
Senator Tammy Baldwin, U.S. Senate (D-WI)
Congresswoman Gwen Moore, U.S. House of Representatives (D-WI-04)
Lt. Governor Sara Rodriguez (D-WI)
Naomi Jackson, Water Street Clinic Manager, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin
Lisa Payton, CEO & President, The Foundation for Black Women's Wellness
Dr. Amy Domeyer-Klenske, Academic Specialist in OB-GYN

VP travel pool report #6: Departure

Motorcade en route to airport at 3:15 pm.

VP travel pool report #7: Departing Wisconsin

Motorcade pulled up to AF2 at 3:44 pm.

She boarded at 3:46 pm and did not respond to a reporter who shouted her name.

We are wheels up to JBA shortly.

VP travel pool report #8: JBA arrival

AF2 landed at 6:25 pm after an uneventful flight. VP disembarked at 6:37 pm and boarded M2, which took off at 6:42 pm.

That's it for us tonight.