In Milwaukee, Harris shuts out news media from billionaire meeting with students

The campaign had planned to allow the press to be present when Harris met with students at UW-Milwaukee on Thursday morning along with Cuban, a longtime owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and celebrity investor on the TV program "Shark Tank."

A university spokesperson said the campaign handled the logistics of the event. The campaign didn't immediately explain the decision to exclude news media from the meeting with students.

Instead, Harris made a brief statement to reporters about the killing of Hamas's military leader Yahya Sinwar by Israel. Sinwar is regarded as the architect of the militant group's Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel that prompted the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Harris on Thursday said Israel had a right to defend itself and that Hamas's threat to Israel "must be eliminated."

"Today, there is clear progress toward that goal," Harris said. "Hamas is decimated, and its leadership is eliminated. This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza. And it must end such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination."

"And, it is time for the day after to begin without Hamas in power," she added.

Harris did not take questions.

Harris' motorcade drove past pro-Palestinian protesters before meeting with other students inside a campus building. The protesters said UWM had blood on its hands for inviting Harris to campus because she has been vice president during the Israel-Hamas war.

𝙊𝙣𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙃𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙙𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢.

"𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙚, 𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩? 𝘽𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙙𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙚?" 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙨𝙠𝙚𝙙, 𝙖𝙘𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙤 𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙤-𝙋𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙥𝙨 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙘𝙖𝙢𝙥𝙪𝙨.

Harris told the protester she respected his right to speak but she was speaking then and she wanted a ceasefire, a response met by cheers from other students in the room.

Harris' visit to Wisconsin came less than three weeks before Election Day, when she will square off against former President Donald Trump. The Democratic hopeful planned to travel to La Crosse for an afternoon rally, followed by another evening event in Green Bay. Cuban was also scheduled to join her in La Crosse.

Harris' travel to Wisconsin and other key battleground states came as the race with Trump continues to be tight in its final weeks leading up to the Nov. 5 election. In the Marquette University Law School poll released earlier this month, Harris maintained a four-point lead over Trump, within the poll's margin of error. Among both registered and likely voters in Wisconsin, it was 52% for Harris and 48% for Trump.

𝐕𝐏 𝐊𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐚 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐭 𝐛𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐨-𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐔𝐖𝐌

By the time Harris' motorcade pulled up, protesters who had gathered inside police tape had been surrounded by police officers from a number of departments.

Dina El Kassas, a sophomore majoring in global studies, was initially protesting with the group of students closest to the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center who were surrounded by police.She said officers eventually allowed her to leave the group and move out of the police tape boundary because she has a green card and didn’t want to be arrested. El Kassas is from Germany and has Egyptian heritage.Still, she thought the heavy police presence was just for show and that police would not actually arrest the student protesters.“I think they’re just there to intimidate us,” El Kassas said.

Shortly after Harris's motorcade left, the students were released from the area within the police tape to cheers from other protesters. There were no apparent arrests.

El Kassas has been involved in pro-Palestinian student protesting efforts at UWM since last year, including the two-week encampment on campus. She objected to paying tuition to a school that would welcome Harris, whom she sees as complicit in Israel’s devastating military operation in Gaza.She was also frustrated that UWM had released a statement days ago saying it was politically neutral.

“It’s a lie, it’s a blatant lie,” El Kassas said.

𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐠𝐧, 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐦 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐬

Trump's campaign on Thursday said Harris's visit "isn't going to move the needle for her failing campaign."

"Wisconsin will prove itself to be Trump Country when it votes for a return to the peace, prosperity, and stability of the first Trump presidency in November,” Wisconsin Communications Director Jacob Fischer said in a statement.

Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman Brian Schimming in a statement said Harris was "expecting us to ignore what our bank statements and monthly budgets make clear: that we were better off four years ago under President Trump."

Trump was most recently in Wisconsin for an Oct. 6 rally in Juneau, which was his fourth event in the swing state in just nine days. His campaign has not yet announced the next time Trump or his running mate, Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance, will return to Wisconsin, though Trump has also hinted at a future rally in Milwaukee or Green Bay.

𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐩 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐖𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞

This week's trip marks Harris' sixth visit to the state as a candidate for president, and her third stop in Milwaukee County. She launched her presidential campaign here in late July with a rally in West Allis.

Harris' last campaign event in Milwaukee was at Fiserv Forum in August, when she appeared with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, during the second night of the Democratic National Convention. She has held other rallies in Eau Claire, Madison and Ripon.

Walz was just in Eau Claire and Green Bay Monday, where he joined Gov. Tony Evers to kick off a bus tour with fellow Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in support of Harris. First lady Jill Biden campaigned in Madison the same day. And former President Barack Obama is scheduled to join Walz and others in Madison on Tuesday, the first day of early voting in Wisconsin.

Harris previously visited UW-Milwaukee in May 2021, when she toured the university's clean energies laboratories and discussed President Joe Biden's infrastructure plan during her first trip to Wisconsin as vice president. The following year, in September 2022, she also met with UWM students and Latino leaders and visited a political science class.

𝐸𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑜𝑟'𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑒: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐽𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑙 𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑉𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝐾𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑎 𝐻𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑠 𝑑𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑇ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑀𝑖𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑢𝑘𝑒𝑒. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒.

𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑢𝑝𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑑𝑑 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛.

𝐽𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑙 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐾𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑀𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑟ℎ𝑜𝑓𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦.