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Google PlayKamala Harris is convinced the nation is experiencing an “epidemic of hate.”
The vice president made the statement Saturday while attending the funeral service for Ruth Whitfield, the oldest victim in the Buffalo supermarket shooting. Harris addressed the mourners in an impromptu speech, in which she encouraged everyone to remain strong and stand together against hate.
“I cannot even begin to express, our collective pain as a nation for what you are feeling in such an extreme way, to not only lose someone that you love, but through an act of extreme violence and hate,” Harris said during her three-minute speech at Mt. Olive Baptist Church. “And I do believe that our nation right now is experiencing an epidemic of hate.”
She continued: “This is a moment that requires all good people, all God-loving people to stand up and say we will not stand for this. Enough is enough. We will come together based on what we all know we have in common, and we will not let those people who are motivated by hate separate us or make us feel fear.”
Harris attended the service alongside second gentleman Doug Emhoff. According to the Associated Press, the husband and wife later visited a memorial outside the Buffalo Tops supermarket, where an 18-year-old gunman carried out at attack on May 14. The shooting left three people injured at 10 dead, including 86-year-old Whitfield.
The horrific incident is being investigated a racially motivated attack, as the suspect reportedly uploaded a lengthy manifesto that included racist philosophy and far-right conspiracy theories. Authorities also say the gunman specifically targeted a Black neighborhood when planning the attack. Out of the 13 people who were shot, only two were white.
Whitfield’s funeral took place just days after an 18-year-old gunman opened fire in an Uvalde, Texas, elementary school, killing 19 children and two teachers. Harris touched the tragedy during her speech, and later called for tighter gun restrictions.
“Let’s have an assault weapons ban,” she told reporters after the service. “An assault weapon is a weapon of war with no place, no place in civil society. Background checks: Why should anyone be able to buy a weapon that can kill other human beings without at least knowing: ‘Hey, that person committed a violent crime before, are they a threat against themselves or others?’ … We have to agree that if we are to be strong as a nation, we must stand strong, identifying our diversity as our unity.”
