Among the thousands who attended Thursday's live-streamed event hosted by Oprah Winfrey were several celebrities, including members of the many grassroots political groups supporting Kamala Harris's presidential campaign.
At the start of the Unite For America call, Winfrey shouted out Meryl Streep, Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez, Tracee Ellis Ross and Bryan Cranston for Zooming in. She also highlighted grassroots groups that have hosted their own Zoom events in support of Harris in recent months, including Win with Black Women, White Dudes for Harris, Win with Black Men, Republicans for Harris, Swifties for Kamala, among others.
“I have never felt so much joy and optimism in a campaign in a long time,” he said. breaking Bad said the actor. “I'm so grateful to Kamala for bringing back that sense of optimism and squashing the cynicism and vitriol and rancor that seems to be everywhere in Washington. And I hope that we can ride that wave all the way to Washington. I'm here, I'm here to support. I couldn't be happier for this candidate. I think she's going to be a terrific president.”
Comedian Rock added: “I want to take my daughters to the White House to meet this black female president. … I think she would be a great president and I'm ready to move on, man. All the hate and negativity. It's got to stop.”
THE The Movie Zoolander The actor praised Harris' speech at the Democratic National Convention last month and said the feeling of energy “going from stop Trump mode to go Kamala mode” was “just incredible.”
Later in the event, Roberts applauded Winfrey for hosting an event “to speak up, to listen, to be heard, to have that back and forth is so unique in this campaign.” The actress also noted that this will be the first time her children will be able to vote in an election and “I couldn't be more thrilled for them to have the legacy of saying that their first vote for president was for you. I shudder to say that out loud.”
Ross also said the livestreamed event was “exciting because I believe in democracy, I believe in the future of our country and I believe in reproductive freedom, I believe in bodily autonomy, I believe in women in leadership, I believe in decency. The idea of leading with joy and kindness has always been in my DNA, and I'm here for both the seriousness of this election and the joy with which it's being run. It's astonishing.”
After praising “all the amazing mothers,” Ross added that as a “52-year-old woman with no children,” she has learned that “you don't have to push a baby out to help humanity progress.”
In another part of the Unite For America call, Streep said she feels “the word of the day has been preventable,” adding that “this whole environment of hate and poison and toxicity and the encouragement of one segment of Americans to hate other segments of Americans,” is “preventable.”
“It's just crazy and nobody wants it,” the actress continued. “We're done, we're done with this.”
Winfrey also brought Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to the stage before Harris joined her on stage to answer voters’ questions about border security, her economic plan, rising costs of living, women’s reproductive rights and gun violence, among other topics.
“I look around at these screens, Oprah, I look at who's in the room and this is America,” Harris said. “I think in this moment, when we've been dealing with so many things that I think are pretty exhausting, with powerful forces that would try to divide us and point fingers at each other, this movement about reminding each other that we have so much more in common than what separates us is so critically important.”
The vice president said her campaign “is about the strength of who we are as Americans and this movement that we're involved in, which is, as I like to say, 'seeing the face of a stranger, of a neighbor.'”
After Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic ticket leader for the 2024 presidential race, grassroots groups brought people across the county together in long Zoom calls, including celebrity attendees, raising millions of dollars for the vice president’s campaign.