Kamala Harris goes to Trump country in Pennsylvania but gets called a ‘war criminal’ by members of her own crowd

Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to the Trump-like part of Pennsylvania on Friday, but it was people on her side of the political spectrum who caused a stir.

The Democratic candidate held a rally Friday night in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, drawing more than 5,000 supporters at the McHale Athletic Center on the downtown campus of Wilkes University, in a county Trump won by nearly 15 points.

About 15 minutes into her speech, as she was overturning the Roe v. Wade case, she was cursed at and called a “war criminal” by a left-wing protester.

“Hey listen, now is the time to get a hostage agreement and a ceasefire — we’ve been working day and night to get that done,” the vice president said. “And I respect your voice, but now — I’m speaking.”

Her silence earned her cheers from the crowd, but as if playing a game of Whac-A-Mole, another protester appeared: this time a man in a straw hat who loudly declared his support for independent progressive candidate Cornel West.

Harris continued her speech despite the interruptions, as an audience member flipped the man off and others booed him.

The frenzied crowd also initially booed the woman Harris was supposed to introduce, Mary Grace Vadala, when she admitted to being a “lifelong Republican.”

The boos turned to cheers when Vadala told a moving story about how her mother became a fan of former President Donald Trump after seeing him on The Apprentice.

“But during the pandemic, at a time when so many of us looked to Trump for leadership, strength and comfort, she was betrayed by him, like so many others,” Vadala said.

“We needed a leader, and we never got one,” Vadala continued. “Instead, Donald Trump did what he always does: He spread misinformation and bragged about how well he was doing, while thousands of people died, workers lost their jobs, and Pennsylvania families like mine hit the wall.”

The former Republican voter said Trump “has driven our country to the brink.”

“His recklessness endangered the American people, cost us millions of jobs, and led to the deaths of over a million Americans — including my mother,” she said, as the crowd gasped.

Earlier on Friday, Harris made a brief stop in Johnstown, a city known for historic flooding in a county that dramatically abandoned the Democratic Party after years of being represented by the powerful, late Democratic Rep. John Murtha.

Harris landed at the late congressman’s Johnstown airport, which bears the congressman’s name, and was greeted by Senator John Fetterman and his wife, Gisele.

Fetterman’s successful 2022 Senate campaign is mimicking Harris’s by pushing the Democratic candidate forward in districts like Cambria and Luzerne.

“Nothing is a lost cause,” campaign chairman Chris Coons of Delaware told DailyMail.com Tuesday night at a Harris-Walz debate viewing party in Philadelphia. “What Fetterman’s campaign showed is that you have to fight for every vote.”

In a race that looked particularly close, Fetterman, who was recovering from a stroke, defeated Republican television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz by nearly five points.

Fetterman made only minor changes in Pennsylvania’s redder counties, but it was enough to give him a convincing victory.

“She can’t be in every county in the country, but you can’t win Pennsylvania by only campaigning in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh,” Coons said, pointing to the Keystone State’s largest cities. “You have to go everywhere.”

In Luzerne County, where Wilkes-Barre is located, 56.7 percent of voters backed Trump, while 42.3 percent backed Biden, a 14.4 percent margin compared to Trump’s win four years ago.

In 2022, Fetterman supported the Democrat with 44.4 percent, while 53.2 percent chose Australia. That means Fetterman lost the county by a narrower margin of 8.8 points.

A similar movement occurred in Cambria County, where Johnstown is the largest population center.

In 2020, Trump defeated Biden 68.1 percent to 30.8 percent — a difference of 37.3 points.

In 2022, Oz defeated Fetterman 63.7 to 33.4 points, shrinking the Republican Party’s still-large lead to 30.7 points.

This comes after Cambria County was narrowly won by Democratic President Barack Obama over Republican Senator John McCain in 2008.

On Friday afternoon, Harris welcomed several hundred supporters at the Johnstown Airport in Johnstown, after which he visited a small business: Classic Elements, an independent bookstore that also houses a coffee shop and wine bar.

She praised the store’s owners for creating a “safe space.”

“And amid so many forces that want to make people feel alone or divide us, I think it’s really important that we intentionally create a safe space,” the vice president said.

Harris told reporters she felt “really good about Pennsylvania, because there are a lot of people in Pennsylvania who deserve to be seen and heard.”

“That’s why I’m here in Johnstown,” she said.