A look back at Kamala Harris’ visits to Buffalo

BUFFALO, N.Y. — When a racially motivated shooting at a Buffalo supermarket shocked the nation, it was Vice President Kamala Harris who decided to attend the funeral of one of the 10 victims.

As the Biden administration touted the Inflation Reduction and Climate Change Act, the vice president traveled to the University at Buffalo to promote the legislation in September 2022.

Speaking to an audience of students, she said: “Your generation has experienced each of the 10 hottest summers on record. You’ve seen your communities decimated by wildfires. Flooded by hurricanes. And choked by drought. Here in Buffalo, you’ve seen toxic algae blooms spread across Lake Erie. Your generation knows the threat of the climate crisis. Because you’ve lived it. And for your entire lives so far, you’ve watched our nation fail to respond with the urgency this crisis demands.”

The climate crisis is the problem many young leaders want to solve, she says.

“More than 60 percent of our country’s electricity comes from fossil fuels, like coal, oil, natural gas. We know that’s not a sustainable solution, and that’s why our administration has invested billions of dollars to boost clean energy production. That means building thousands of new wind turbines and massive solar farms.” She added that the transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

“Every year, gasoline-powered cars, trucks and buses produce millions of tons of carbon dioxide and toxic air pollution. But there is a solution to this problem: electric vehicles,” the vice president said.

After her speech, she took time to meet with the families of the victims of the mass shooting.

In May 2022, she spoke out against hate at the funeral of Ruth Whitfield. Whitfield was the oldest victim of the Tops supermarket mass shooting.

“To not only lose someone you love, but to do it to an act of extreme violence and hatred. I think our country is going through an epidemic of hatred right now,” she told a large crowd inside Mount Olive Baptist Church.

“What happened here in Buffalo, Texas, in Atlanta, in Orlando? What happened in the synagogues? So this is a moment that demands that all good people, all people who love God, stand up and say, ‘We will not tolerate this, enough is enough.’”