Vice Presidential Pool Reports of May 28, 2022

VP pool report 1

Good morning from Joint Base Andrews, where it's a cool, sunny morning. I'm your print pooler for the trip of Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff as they head off to Buffalo for the funeral of Ruth Whitfield, one of the 10 victims of the masa shooting that took place on May 14.

Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul greeted the VP and her husband as they disembarked from Marine 2 at 8:45 a.m. They boarded Air Force Two a minute later.

We are now ready to depart. More once we land in Buffalo.

VP pool report 2

Air Force Two landed on a dreary, cool morning in Buffalo at 9:45. The VP and her husband emerged from the plane at 10:05. Motorcade is now en route to Mount Olive Baptist Church on Buffalo's East Side for the funeral of Ruth Whitfield, who, at 86, was the oldest victim of the Buffalo mass shooting.

VP pool report 3

Motorcade arrived at Mt. Olive Baptist Church at about 10:25 a.m. VP is nowhere in sight but staff confirms she is visiting with family members of Ruth Whitfield. Pool is now holding in the church balcony. Funeral is scheduled to begin at noon.

VP pool report 4

On background from a WH Official:
Vice President, Second Gentleman and Assistant Pastor Dr. Wayne Gillison are meeting with members of the Whitfield family.

Following that meeting, the Vice President, Second Gentleman and Mayor Byron Brown (Buffalo) meet with the families of the mass shooting victims.

VP pool report 5

VP Harris and her husband entered Mt. Olive Baptist Church at 12:08 p.m., sitting in the front row of the huge, modern chapel. Scattered applause greeted their entry.

Other public officials in attendance include New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown, and Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz.

The service began with a hymn, and the VP swayed back and forth and clapped to the tune.

The VP is not expected to speak at the service.

Attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Whitfield family and other families of those shot to death in the Buffalo attack, spoke at the start of the service. Rev. Al Sharpton is also here.

VP pool report 6

On background from a WH Official:

The Vice President and Second Gentleman also met with local leaders before the funeral.

Other participants include:

• Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
• Congressman Brian Higgins (D-NY-26)
• Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY)
• Mayor Byron Brown (D-Buffalo, NY)
• Buffalo Commons Council President Darius Pridgen
• Reverend Al Sharpton
• Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz (D-NY-Erie)
• Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, New York State Senate (D-NY-141)
• New York Attorney General Letitia "Tish" James (D-NY)

Funeral program:
o Call to Justice
o Prelude
o Procession
o Words of Assurance
o Hymns of Praise
o Scripture: Old Testament – 90th Psalm
o New Testament – 1 Corinthians 12:41-57 o Prayer of Comfort
o Selection
o Acknowledgements and Reflections
o Obituary
o Words of Comfort
o Selection
o Eulogy
o Selection
o Benediction
o Recession

VP pool report 7

Rev. Al Sharpton delivered the eulogy and at the start, asked the elected officials in the room to stand -- and the VP was among the last to stand. When she did, she smiled and waved at the other public officials to her right in the church.

Later, when Sharpton lauded the fact that Buffalo reacted peacefully after the attack, she stood and applauded.

Sharpton said he asked Harris to come to the service, but she made clear that she didn't want to speak. But now he is insisting that she speak.

VP pool report 9 - Complete transcript of Harris remarks

This is a cleaned up full Otter transcript of the VP's remarks:

The pain that this family is feeling right now, and the nine other families here in Buffalo, I cannot even begin to express, our collective pain as a nation for what you are feeling in such an extreme way, to not only lose someone that you love, but through an act of extreme violence and hate.

And I do believe that our nation right now is experiencing the epidemic of hate. And as we know from the Scripture, it teaches us when we talk about strength, the strength of personality, the strength of spirit, the strength of faith, I think we all know that a true measure of strength is not based on who you beat down. It's based on who you lift up. Who you lift up. And it means then also, in that strength, understanding we will not allow small people to create fear in our communities that we will not be afraid to stand up for what is right, to speak up even when it may be difficult to hear and speak.

There's a through line to what happened here in Texas, in Atlanta, in Orlando, what happened at the synagogues ... and so this is a moment that requires all good people who are loving people to just say we will not stand for this.

Enough is enough.

We will come together based on what we all know we have in common and we will not let those people who are motivated by hate separate us or make us feel fear.

So I'm here to say that we are all in this together. No one should ever be made to fight alone. We are stronger than those who try to hurt us ... We are strong. We are strong in our faith. We are strong in our belief about what is right and our determination to act, ensure that we protect all those who deserve to be protected, that we see all those who deserve to be seen, that we hear the voices of the people and that we rise up in solidarity to speak out against this and to speak to our better angels. Thank you.

VP pool report 10 - VP stop at Tops Market

After the funeral, VP Harris and her husband arrived at the memorial outside the Tops Friendly Market on Jefferson Avenue — where the shooting took place — at about 2 p.m. Harris emerged from a black SUV bearing a huge bouquet of white flowers.

After a few moments of observing the memorial, she laid her flowers on the ground at the foot of the memorial, which features photos of the 10 victims of the mass shooting two weeks ago. Harris and Emhoff then paused to pray for several minutes, and both seemed somber almost to the point of tears.

Harris and her husband then turned to leave. A crowd of several hundred had gathered in anticipation of her unannounced visit to the memorial, and Harris waved to the crowd, which applauded and cheered for the Vice President and her husband as they were leaving. Some in the crowd shouted out "thanks for coming" and "we love you."

VP Pool report 11 — VP comments before takeoff

The VP stopped to speak to the pool at about 2:25 p.m. before departure for JBA. Here is a lightly edited Otter transcript, with some parts deleted because they were unintelligible:

I will send a more closely edited version once we land at JBA but this is the best I can do before take off:

To Lose a loved one unexpectedly and because it's such an extreme act the tragedy of it is beyond description. And so first we are here to offer our condolences. But also when we think about what's been happening and you've heard me say it before, I really do think we need to look at the fact that this year alone I'm told that we've had over 200 mass shootings, over 200, barely halfway through the year. And when we're looking at an epidemic of hate, where we're where people are being targeted, just because of who they are. I think we all have to stand back and say, Wait, enough, enough is enough....No one should be left to fight alone...We have to agree that if we are to be strong as a nation, we must stand strong, identifying our diversity as our unity and then anyone who is trying to break that down is hurting us as a country. And as individuals who should identify as one as a country as Americans. So I think of it in a number of ways there is the tragedy of the personal loss that each of these families has made. The funeral today... What a beautiful woman lived annextraordinary life. I met with the other families that were community leaders. There were a father of an infant. And and then of course the President is going to go tomorrow to Texas and and be with the families who have lost their baby at a school. We have to everybody's got to stand up and agree that this should not be happening in our country and that we shouldn't have the courage to do something about it on the issue of gun violence. I will say as I've said countless times we are not sitting around waiting to figure out what the solution looks like. You know, we're not looking for a vaccine. We know what works on that. It includes let's have an assault weapons ban. You know what an assault weapon is. You know how an assault weapon was designed. It was designed for a specific purpose to kill a lot of human beings quickly. An assault weapon is a weapon of war with no place no place in a civil society. Why should anyone be able to buy a weapon that can kill other human beings without at least knowing Hey, that person committed a violent crime before are they a threat against themselves or others? That's a pretty simple defeasible we do that thing. You have to have a license to drive a car. You have to be of a certain age to fire a six pack. We are a society that is governed by rules, most of which were designed those rules to act at the very height of the purpose to prevent against harm, to promote safety and to to have a common order that we all agree a civilized society should agree to that ensures that there will be safety and that if we can prevent chaos, when we've had over 200 mass shootings in our country already and we are barely in June. You guys do something that's within our power to do it's Congress's to act. And what I know is that we also have to come together as one nation, undivided, standing with each other.

VP pool report 12

Air Force Two landed at JBA at 3:40 p.m. The VP and her husband then boarded Marine 2 at 3:48.

Stay tuned for one last pool report with cleaned-up comments from the VP from her talk with reporters before takeoff in Buffalo.

VP pool report 13

Here's my final pool report: the complete transcript of the VP's comments to reporters in Buffalo. Note her coments backing an assault weapons ban:

To lose a loved one unexpectedly and because it's such an extreme act of violence and hate, the tragedy of it is beyond description. And so first I expressed our condolences. But also when we think about what's been happening -- and you've heard me say it before -- I really do think we need to look at the fact that this year alone I'm told that we've had over 200 mass shootings. Over 200 -- we're barely halfway through the year. And when we're looking at an epidemic of hate, where people are being targeted just because of who they are, I think we all have to stand back and say: Wait, enough, enough is enough. A harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us. No one should be left to fight alone. And we have to deal with it. And we have to deal with it in a number of ways but I went through it even at the church. You look at it, everything from Buffalo, to what's happening just with those babies and those teachers being killed in Texas, the funerals haven't really even begun in terms of mourning that loss. We're looking at it on the heels of Atlanta just a year ago or Orlando, the tree of life. We have to agree that if we are to be strong as a nation, we must stand strong, identifying our diversity as our unity and then anyone who is trying to break that down is hurting us as a country and as individuals who should identify as one, as a country, as Americans. So I think of it in a number of ways. There is the tragedy of the personal loss that each of these families has made. Mrs.Whitfield, the funeral today -- what a beautiful woman who lived an extraordinary life. I met with the other families, there were community leaders, there was a father of an infant. And then of course the President is going to go tomorrow to Texas and be with the families who have lost their babies at a school. Everybody's got to stand up and agree that this should not be happening in our country and that we should have the courage to do something about it. On the issue of gun violence. I will say as I've said countless times: we are not sitting around waiting to figure out what the solution is. Let's have an assault weapons ban. You know what an assault weapon is? You know how an assault weapon was designed? It was designed for a specific purpose to kill a lot of human beings quickly. An assault weapon is a weapon of war with no place no place in a civil society. Background checks: Why should anyone be able to buy a weapon that can kill other human beings without at least knowing: Hey, that person committed a violent crime before, are they a threat against themselves or others? That's just reasonable. It's reasonable: we do that, saying you have to have a license to drive a car, you have to be of a certain age to buy a six pack. We are a society that is governed by rules, most of which were designed, those rules, to act at the very height of the purpose, to prevent against harm, to promote safety and to have a common order that we all agree a civilized society should agree to that ensures that there will be safety and that if we can prevent chaos. When we've had over 200 mass shootings in our country already and we are barely in June, let's all agree: We've got to do something and it's within our power to do it. Congress needs to act. And what I know is that we also have to come together as one nation, undivided, standing with each other.