Kamala Harris has told Oprah Winfrey that anyone who breaks into her home “is getting shot” as she tried to win over gun rights supporters before the US presidential election.
Ms Harris, the US vice president and the Democratic Party’s nominee, who backs stricter gun control laws, confirmed on a star-studded livestream event fronted by the former talk show host that she owns a weapon and is prepared to use it.
She said: “I’m a gun owner, too.” When Ms Winfrey expressed surprise, she warned: “If somebody’s breaking into my house, they’re getting shot.”
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Thursday’s 90-minute Unite for America event, which took place in the city of Farmington Hills in the key swing state of Michigan, featured guest appearances from actors Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep and Ben Stiller, among other celebrities.
More than 300,000 people were watching on YouTube alone and it was also available on other major social media platforms.
Ms Harris stressed she and her running mate, Tim Walz, are both gun owners – while also emphasising her intention to bring in new restrictions on assault-style weapons, with the aim of tackling America’s school shootings problem.
As well as repeating campaign promises to reduce housing costs and lower taxes for the middle class, Ms Harris also leaned into another of her staple subjects – abortion rights.
The mother and sister of a young Georgia mother, who died after waiting 20 hours for a hospital to treat her complications from an abortion pill, joined the broadcast.
Amber Thurman’s death, first reported on Monday, came just two weeks after Georgia’s strict abortion ban was enacted in 2022 following the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn nationwide abortion rights.
Ms Harris has blamed her death on her Republican opponent, former president Donald Trump, who appointed three conservative judges to the court during his time in the White House.
Mr Trump has often taken credit for the court’s subsequent overturning of the Roe v Wade case that previously gave women a de facto right to an abortion in the US.
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Ms Harris accused Mr Trump and “certain” state politicians of believing they were better qualified than medical professionals to decide when a patient needed medical care.
She said Ms Thurman’s story highlights that abortion bans have led to a “health care crisis that affects the patient and the profession”.
There are less than seven weeks to go until the 5 November election and the race is expected to be decided by a handful of US swing states.