Harris is trying to turn the protests in Gaza into a way to energize the crowds at her rallies

WASHINGTON (AP) — Protesters can create awkward moments for presidential candidates. They interrupt, cackle, and often hijack a candidate.

But Vice President Kamala Harris is trying a new late-campaign strategy to turn what would otherwise be awkward interactions into moments of energy used to rally supporters and subtly drive her message against her Republican opponent, Donald Trump.

At all three of the Democratic candidate’s rallies Wednesday — in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – Pro-Palestinian protesters intervened with chants, banners and even a whistle to criticize Harris for her and President Joe Biden’s handling of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The protesters in Gaza have has long targeted Harris eventsand Biden is when he was still the party’s nomineehoping to use the unrest to draw media attention to their cause. They often caused extended pauses while security officers removed demonstrators or created awkward interactions.

After three months as a candidate and as she tries to stick to her carefully honed closing message in the final week of the campaign, Harris’ latest tactic aims to both validate the protesters’ concerns and use them as a point of evidence in her case against the former. president.

When a protester in North Carolina shouted that Harris “disrespects the Palestinian community,” Harris used the moment to attack Trump.

“That’s the thing, we know we’re actually fighting for a democracy,” Harris said in Raleigh. “Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t think people who disagree with you are the enemy.”

Hours later in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Harris used a similar protest to embrace democracy.

“Look, I’m going to say it again, we’re fighting for a democracy, we love our democracy,” she said. “It might be complicated at times, but it’s the best system in the world.”

When she faced late-night protests in Wisconsin, Harris used a familiar appeal to what she said when then-Vice President Mike Pence tried to interrupt her during their 2020 debate.

“We all want the war in Gaza to end and get the hostages out, and I will do everything in my power to make that heard and known,” Harris said. “And everyone has a right to be heard, but I’m speaking now.”

The moments at each stop energized the large crowds at Harris’ events, drowning out the protesters and becoming a way for her supporters to unite.

In Wisconsin, the response was so strong and sustained that a second group with a banner was not loud enough to disrupt the event.

Despite the way the protests were suppressed on Wednesday, some pro-Palestinian figures who oppose Harris see her focus on democracy and her recognition that protesters have a right to be heard as a softening by the Democratic nominee.

“It’s good that her rhetoric has softened, but the time for that has passed,” said Dearborn City Councilman Mustapha Hammoud. “Instead of peace, we have seen an increase in violence in war. So we can’t accept talk, we need real results.” Hammoud told The Associated Press in September that he considered himself a Democrat until recently.

Protests are an occupational hazard for presidential candidates.

In 2016, Trump responded to a protest in Nevada saying, “I’d like to punch him in the face.” Hillary Clinton that same year was regularly protested by Black Lives Matter activists, including at an event where protesters choked her for 10 minutes and forced Representative John Lewis, a civil rights icon, to call for the group to stop. And in 2020, after Biden won a slate of state primaries on Super Tuesday, anti-dairy protesters took the stage by stormforcing Jill Biden to protect her husband, pushing activists aside.

“I’m a good girl from Philly,” Jill Biden told reporters after the showdown.

Harris, unlike Biden, has taken a more confrontational stance toward protesters since winning the Democratic nomination earlier this year.

When a group of pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted her at an event in August chanting, “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide, we’re not going to vote for genocide,” Harris responded bluntly: “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say this. Otherwise, I’m talking.”

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Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti and Mike Householder in Lansing, Mich., contributed to this report.