Vice President Kamala Harris gained immense popularity after a transient but sharp exchange with hecklers during her campaign rally in La Cross, Wisconsin, on Thursday evening.

During the event, the Democratic presidential candidate was interrupted to discuss reproductive rights and the role that former President Donald Trump, her Republican opponent within the 2024 presidential race, played in overturning federal abortion rights in dozens of states across the country.

“Donald Trump hand-picked three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention of rolling back Roe v. Wade protections — and they did as he intended,” Harris said.

Then a heckler appeared and shouted, “Lies!” shortly thereafter, to which Harris replied, “Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally.”

After thunderous applause from Harris’ supporters drowned out the screams, Harris added: “No, I think you were going to go to the smaller one down the street… come on!”

Vice President Harris to MAGA hecklers: “Oh, you guys are at the flawed rally. I feel you wanted to go to the smaller one down the road.

🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/mRjL561vbp

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 17, 2024

The interaction with the hecklers didn’t last long; nevertheless, the exchange retained its effectiveness on social media because it was shared countless times.

“This is what ‘BOSS’ looks like in MTF mode!!! …Pop f**k.” he said rapper turned influential online political voice Plies on X, formerly often known as Twitter.

Many people online praised the Democratic presidential candidate for the best way she handled the situation, especially the best way she trolled unexpected haters. Harris eventually responded again, saying, “…in America, one in three women lives in a state where Trump bans abortion.” She added: “Many of these prohibitions have no exceptions, even in cases of rape or incest.”

Abortion has been a sticky issue for Republicans since SCOTUS repealed abortion rights in June 2022. In every election that has had abortion access on the ballot over the past few election cycles, voters in ideologically diverse states have chosen to guarantee reproductive rights. The cause was such a losing cause that Trump and a few Republicans sought to soften their stance on abortion.

While Trump bragged concerning the nomination of Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett and their subsequent roles in overturning Roe, the previous president went out of his way to say he wouldn’t support a nationwide abortion ban – something some support Republicans and bowing to pressure conservative anti-abortion leaders.

Democrats are hoping that turnout in favor of Harris and other Democrats will fall on the ballot, on condition that states akin to Nevada, Florida, Maryland and Arizona have several abortion measures on the ballot. They also warn that if Trump and Republicans gain control of the White House and Congress, they are going to pass a federal abortion ban.

Trump, nevertheless, said he thought overturning Roe and restoring legal status for abortion to states was a good thing.

Harris emerged because the nation’s leading voice on reproductive rights shortly after the leak of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Since replacing President Joe Biden because the Democratic presidential nominee, Harris has seemingly reinvigorated the abortion movement.

Political analyst Juanita Tolliver points out that reproductive rights are one in all the important thing differences between Harris and Biden – not of their positions, but in the best way they discuss the problem.

In addition to his viral moment with hecklers, Harris has had a week stuffed with news recently. The vp gave several high-profile interviews, including with radio personality Charlamagne Tha God and FOX News’ Brett Baier.

“I don’t know a single African-American who would want to allow or enable Project 2025 to become the new norm or reality because it is anti-Black at its core,” Johnson said of the controversial pro-Trump conservative agenda released by former Trump administration officials.

“On the one hand, this is about redefining government and creating the reality of 1930s apartheid, rather than ensuring that we look ahead to 2030, which is more diverse, more inclusive and provides more opportunity,” Johnson said.

More history

A black conservative radio host is facing backlash for calling black supporters of Donald Trump “African-American field men.”

Shelley Wynter appeared on October 16, where made the “bazooka explosion” when it divided the U.S. Black male electorate into “African-Americans at home and African-Americans in the field.”

“Let me boil this election in the African-American community down to a very simple word: I will refer to the great Malcolm X,” he said. “This race is between home African Americans and field African Americans, and field African Americans are voting for (Donald) Trump.”

The remarks referred to “house slaves” who worked in the slave house during U.S. slavery and “field slaves” who worked outside. Although Wynter claims he was referring to the Malcolm X quote, his comments were met with criticism from co-host Sarah Sidner and guest Michael Blake, in addition to many who rewatched the clip.

According to Rashawn Ray, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, Wynter’s comments “speak to the growing class divide among black Americans between the haves and have-nots.”

“These types of comments often occur behind closed doors in the black community.”

Wynter claims he was referring to a portion of Malcolm The host of “The Shelley Wynter Show” stands by his comments, saying anyone who has an issue along with his evocation of Malcolm X and slavery is “over-analyzing it.”

“There is an argument to be made that technically we are all slaves to this system, whether you are a Democrat or a Republican,” he said. “No one can be called a slave. “He uses the analogy in the context of what it was used, just like when Malcolm was explaining something and he didn’t call black people slaves when he gave that speech.”

“He said it was a matter of attitude. There are people in the Black community who, once they get near power – i.e. a champion – will tackle the attributes and defend it. And that is what we’re seeing in this race now. “

In May 2020, a top loan officer at Fairway Independent Mortgage Company sent an email to a loan processor regarding a possible property purchase in Ensley, a majority Black neighborhood in Birmingham, that stated: “Ensley is a GHETTO. I assure you we do not have a house there. A LOT OF LAUGHTER!”

The Fairway mortgage processor replied, “ROFLOL,” which likely meant “rolling on the floor laughing out loud,” in accordance with a court document that noted the lender didn’t accept any loan applications within the Ensley area between 2018 and 2021 .

No one at Fairway Mortgage is laughing now, after a four-year investigation this week by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the U.S. Department of Justice forced the mortgage lender to succeed in an $8 million settlement to deal with its alleged discriminatory lending practices, including redlining black neighborhoods in and around Birmingham.

Redlining is an illegal, discriminatory practice wherein lenders and other firms make credit and other financial services out of reach for people in certain areas based on race or national origin.

According to a criticism filed by each federal agencies on Oct. 15, Madison, Wisconsin-based Fairway, doing business in Birmingham as MortgageBanc, operated retail lending offices in predominantly white areas of metro Birmingham from 2015 to 2022. The company also solicited lending referrals from individuals and organizations in majority-white areas and targeted its marketing efforts at them, while ignoring majority-black neighborhoods.

As a result, just 3.7 per cent of the ten,247 Fairway mortgage applications reported to the federal government between 2018 and 2022 were for properties in predominantly black areas, compared with 12.2 per cent for other lenders in Birmingham, in accordance with complaints. Only 3.3 percent of the 7,913 mortgages Fairway actually originated within the metro area were for properties in predominantly black neighborhoods, compared with 10.1 percent from other mortgage lenders.

At that point, the Birmingham Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) comprised six counties in north-central Alabama with a complete population of 1.1 million made up of residents that were 62% white, 30% black, 5% Latino, and three% other races.

Such Fairway policies and practices constitute an override because they “were intended to disclaim and, in effect, resulted within the denial of equal access to home loans to majority Black (a minimum of 50 percent Black) and high Black (a minimum of 80 percent of the Black population) residents black) percentage of black people) residential areas and applicants for loans for properties situated in those areas,” argued the 2 federal agencies, which found that Fairway violated the federal Fair Housing Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the U.S. financial consumers.

The agencies argued that Fairway must have been well aware that it was not adequately serving majority Black areas because the corporate had been using third-party vendors since 2017 to review credit data to evaluate the danger of redlining in majority Black areas. and minorities. Those annual risk-mitigation reports “should have brought attention to Fairway,” the feds argued, but the corporate “failed to take any significant action to increase (loan) applications and originations in majority-black areas” in metro Birmingham .

The criticism also noted that piece of email between several white Fairway employees between 2018 and 2020 used offensive language in reference to majority-Black areas of Birmingham, “indicating a culture consistent with discrimination, including by discouraging applications.” for real estate loans in these areas.”

In addition to calling Ensley and one other majority-Black neighborhood, Tarrant, a “ghetto,” Fairway loan officers in a 2018 email chain referred to an African-American male loan applicant as having “thug friends” and wrote that “(w)e ​​don’t need him as a client. He is a burden waiting to occur. The black applicant withdrew his application.

The settlement announced Tuesday requires Fairway to offer $8 million for a loan subsidy program to supply reasonably priced loans for home purchases, refinances and residential renovations in predominantly black neighborhoods in Birmingham, in addition to pay a civil penalty of 1.9 million dollars to the CFPB Victim Assistance Fund. It has not yet been certified by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

The Birmingham settlement is the fifteenth settlement the Justice Department has reapproved in three years as a part of its settlement Anti-redlining initiativewhich has now raised greater than $150 million in settlements “to benefit communities of color across the country who have experienced lending discrimination,” including Houston, Memphis, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

“This settlement…will help ensure that future generations of Americans inherit the legacy of home ownership that has been too often denied,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. “This case is a reminder that redlining is not a relic of the past.”

“This is good news for those looking to buy or renovate a home in this area,” George McCall, 81, president of the Ensley Neighborhood Association, told Atlanta Black Star in regards to the settlement.

“This is not a ghetto as they said. Our homes are not neglected or neglected, but many of the homeowners are seniors who have had a hard time getting loans to make needed improvements,” McCall said, adding, “I hope this will help more young people be able to buy a home.” It’s really hard for them to get financing for anything.

Eric Guster, an attorney and developer who grew up in Ensley and who recently built a $2.5 million shopping mall in nearby Five Points West, told Atlanta Black Star he hopes the settlement and loan assistance program will result in more homeowners in mostly Birmingham -Black neighborhoods.

“When people start owning homes, they take more pride in their homes, they become attached to their neighborhood, and that promotes social responsibility,” he said. “When there is no inflow of cash and investment, when people are disenfranchised, it is a faster path to collapse and decay. And that was what the mortgage company was doing, helping the decomposition process.”

Fairway released statement on Tuesday, denying that he participated in redlining and noting that the federal lawsuit was filed a day after the settlement was reached. He called the criticism “inflammatory” and said it incorrectly characterizes Fairway’s actions as “willful and reckless, a claim that was mutually denied by the parties prior to the settlement.”

In the primary half of 2024, the corporate ranked twelfth amongst the most important U.S. mortgage lenders, with $11.8 billion in home loan production. HousingWire reported. The criticism says Fairway is among the many top five lenders within the Birmingham area for application volume.

“Fairway has vigorously defended itself against the government agencies’ allegations and continues to deny that the Company engaged in any discriminatory conduct,” Fairway said in an announcement. “Fairway also maintains its strong opposition to government agencies’ legal and statistical approaches to identifying potential discrimination. However, to resolve this issue and reduce further expenditure of resources, Fairway concluded that a settlement with the Bureau and the Department of Justice can be probably the most appropriate solution.

The company said the settlement “gives Fairway the opportunity to redirect financial resources to majority-Black neighborhoods through loan subsidies, consumer financial education and community development.” Fairway hopes these efforts will further expand lending options for people seeking to purchase properties within the majority-Black census tracts of the Birmingham MSA.