Kamala’s Day In New Haven: A Timeline

So. What exactly did Vice President Kamala Harris do and talk about on Friday when she visited New Haven and West Haven?

Usually, when asked such a relatively innocuous question about hometown happenings, your trusty reporter at the New Haven Independent can say, ​“Good question. Let me tell you what happened based on my firsthand observation of events.”

Not so with today’s veep visit.

Almost all local press were completely barred from covering the vice president in person during her visit to the Boys & Girls Club on Columbus Avenue and her subsequent stop at the West Haven Child Development Center, in between flying in and out of Tweed New Haven Airport.

Citing concerns around ​“Covid restrictions and space constraints,” a regional spokesperson for the Executive Office of the President said the Independent could not tag along for the visit.

The EOP instead tapped the Hartford Courant’s Daniela Altimari as the ​“local pooler” — that is, the local reporter charged with sending out regular email updates to the press about Friday’s happenings. Hearst Washington Correspondent Emilie Munson served as the travel pool reporter for the day, and also sent out frequent email updates.

Thanks to Altimari’s and Munson’s regular email updates over the course of Friday afternoon, the Independent could put together a timeline of what Vice President Harris’s visit to New Haven looked like from the perspectives of two reporters who spent the day with her.

A very big thanks to Altimari and Munson for providing such detailed accounts over the course of the day. Click here and here to read their own reports for their respective papers on how the day played out.

Click here and here for the Independent’s coverage of New Haveners who turned out in the Hill to try to catch a glimpse of the VP, and on U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s role in making the American Rescue Plan — and thereby Harris’s visit to New Haven — a reality.

The below timeline is based on email updates sent out over the course of Friday afternoon by Hearst’s Munson and by Hartford Courant’s Altimari.

1:28 p.m.: Kamala Harris arrives at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, and boards Air Force 2. She does not answer any questions from the press.

Symone Sanders, a senior adviser and chief spokesperson for Harris, does field questions from the press during the flight.

Is the White House’s goal to make the expanded child tax credit permanent? ​“It should be permanent and we look forward to Congress making moves on that,” Sanders replies.

What’s the VP doing on gun safety? ​“The President and the Vice President believe that Congress needs to act. The House has in fact moved. They have moved two bills out of the House of Representatives and now it is on the Senate. We have the capacity to ban assault weapons. We have the capacity to strengthen our background check laws and systems.”

Sanders says that New Haven is the vice president’s last stop on the ​“Help is Here” tour.

1:59 p.m.: The morning’s heavy fog has lifted at Tweed New Haven Airport. Vice President Harris is expected soon.

More than 50 onlookers gather behind a fence, awaiting her arrival. One Trump sign is spotted.

“It’s a big day for this sleepy airport. Tweed is situated within a residential neighborhood, with only one arrival scheduled for today: an American Airlines flight from Philadelphia due in this afternoon.”

2:30 p.m.: Air Force 2 lands at Tweed New Haven Airport.

The clouds have cleared and the sun is shining.

Gov. Ned Lamont, U.S. Reps. Rosa DeLauro and Jahana Hayes, and U.S. Secretary of Education (and former state education commissioner) Miguel Cardona stand on the tarmac in a line to greet the vice president.

2:34 p.m.: Harris descends the plane to claps from Lamont and the others gathered.

She first speaks with Lamont, and gives the governor an elbow bump. She then speaks with Cardona and DeLauro, ​“who gestured enthusiastically.” She speaks with Hayes last.

“The women (Hayes and DeLauro and Harris) exchanged gestures of arms crossed across the chest like a hug and blowing kisses. The group spoke for about 5 minutes total.”

Harris waves at the pool briefly, then gets in the motorcade, which starts to roll.

The residential streets surrounding the airport are lined with crowds. Many appear to be supporters, clapping and cheering as the motorcade passes.

There is one large plywood sign spray painted with the words,” Americans First.”

A bigger crowd greets Harris outside of the Boys & Girls Club. At a nearby school, St. Martin De Porres Academy, a large group of children cheers and applauds as the motorcade passes.

3:00 p.m.: The pool waits inside the Boys & Girls Club on Columbus Avenue.

Outside, people stand on their front stoops and wave and cheer.

“Mostly supporters but a few Trump flags on the way.”

The press is in a large room with tables set up in a U shape. There are bookshelves of books, trophies on display, a foosball table and an air hockey table around the edges of the room.

Connecticut Office of Early Childhood Commissioner Beth Bye and state Department of Children and Families Commissioner Vannessa Doranta wait in the same room as the press.

3:10 p.m.: Harris enters the room with Secretary Cardona. She greets Commissioners Bye and Dorantes, and says she’s eager to meet them.

Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, Lamont, Dorantes, and Bye are all already seated in the tables in a U shape.

Cardona speaks first.

“We are at such a critical point in our nation’s history” for children’s poverty, he says. ​“It’s almost like a reset button.” He cites statistics on child poverty in the U.S. and in Connecticut. ​“We know that education can really lift up children out of poverty.”

Cardona says the Department of Education’s job is to provide resources to help make this work. He says the job of the American Rescue Plan is to get children back learning in person as quickly and safely as possible.

Harris starts by thanking Connecticut for allowing Cardona to serve as Secretary.

She describes Connecticut as ​“progressive” and ​“courageous and innovative.” She calls Murphy and Blumenthal her ​“buddies.” She thanks the commissioners.

She says they are being ​“clear-eyed” about the challenges posed by the pandemic.

“It is moment to leap frog over what might have otherwise been incremental change” to help children.

She says one of the parts of the American Rescue Plan the White House is most excited about is the substantial investment in childcare that should lift half of American children out of poverty. She also points to the legislation’s investment in K‑12 schools. She says the investment should help with the recovery from the pandemic and also ​“recent history of inadequately funding our public schools.”

“When I think about the importance of a place like this,” she says about the Boys & Girls Club, ​“I think about it in the context in which I grew up.”

She talks about how her mom was a cancer researcher who was trying to raise two daughters by herself. She says when her mom worked late, they would walk down the street to see Mrs. Regina Shelton, who would care for them.

“She could not have done that work without Ms. Shelton.” Harris says that is true for all working parents — that they need help to raise their kids.

She says she wants to talk with the group about how they are measuring mental health impacts of the pandemic and of poverty.

“Let us be clear, poverty is trauma inducing.”

She hands the mic back to Cardona. The members of the group introduce themselves.

The pool is ushered out of the room. The press wait outside the Boys & Girls Club.

After the closed-door conversation at the Boys & Girls Club, the press is welcomed back in and briefed.

Harris says the group spoke about the increase in the number of reports of child neglect in Connecticut during the pandemic.

She says they also discussed the mental health impact of the coronavirus crisis on children.

Harris takes a few questions from the press.

How should Democrats respond to the new voting restrictions in Georgia?

“I believe very strongly that Congress needs to pass the For [The] People Act, and we need to restore the — the teeth and the strength of the Voting Rights Acts. And we need to also provide for what is necessary, clearly, when we see the kind of abusive practices that we’ve seen in the — from the Georgia legislature, which is to intentionally, I believe, attempt to prevent whole populations of people from exercising their constitutional right to vote in their elections. So that’s what we need to do.”

Do you think the filibuster should be scrapped?

“Well, I think the President was quite clear. … which is that we should take a look at the filibuster. He made his thoughts clear about the talking filibuster. And ultimately, it’s going to be the Senate that’s going to make that decision. 

“But — but — but let me just add that we do have to get to a place where it’s not so easy to block progress, because the American people need us to act. And what we saw with the American Rescue Plan — and it was the point of this discussion — and we’re going to later see our young leaders and our babies — four-year-olds, five-year-olds — the children of America deserve to have their Congress act to meet their needs, especially when they are suffering, especially when we’re talking about issues like poverty. 

​“And so, look, that — the point then is that it should not be so easy to block progress in our country.”

4:19 p.m.: Harris’s motorcade and the press arrive at the West Haven Child Development Center.

The building is in a residential neighborhood. People stand on their front porches and at the end of the block, where police held them back, to wave and cheer.

The pool goes into a classroom of three- and four-year-olds who are sitting on a colorful carpet and waiting for Harris to come in. They are all wearing masks.

“I want to see Kamala Harris,” one girl named Galya said. ​“I’m going to tell all my family about you.”

Peter Velz from the vice president’s office teaches the children that Harris’s name is pronounced ​“Comma-la” not ​“Ka-MAH-la” while they all wait for her to come. The kids repeat after him how to say her name correctly.

Harris, Cardona and DeLauro visit the classroom of 14 three-to-five-year-olds.

Harris tells the children, ​“This is the best part of my day, talking to you all.”

How do you like being the Vice President? Galya asks.

“I kind of like it,” Harris replies.

Harris tells the children seated and crawling on the classroom rug, ​“You can be anything you want to be.”

Galya replies, ​“I want to be everything!”

Galya introduces all the children to the vice president, naming them one by one.

“You can’t do this on Zoom,” Cardona says.

Harris asks the children what they did today. Galya says she had breakfast, lunch and a snack.

Harris sits cross-legged on the carpet and the children sit around her. Galya sits cross-legged by her side.

“I love meeting our young leaders and that’s why I am here to meet with you,” Harris says.

“I think this was like fuel for our hearts,” Cardona says. He urges the kids to do a ​“pinkie wave” to say goodbye. He asks the kids if they have a goodbye song. Some children start to sing.

The pool is then ushered out of the classroom.

4:49 p.m.: While at the West Haven childcare center, Munson interviews Mayor Justin Elicker about Harris’s visit and about how the city plans to spend its American Rescue Plan dollars on childcare and schools.

Elicker: ​“We’re really excited that the Vice President is visiting our city and underscoring, in particular addressing issues around child poverty, because so many children in New Haven need that kind of boost and support…. If we don’t invest now, then we’re going to have many more challenges in the future.”

Munson: ​“Have you thought about how the city is going to take in and spend the billions or millions of dollars you’re expected to get” for childcare and for K‑12 schools?

Elicker: The New Haven Board of Alders will help lead ​“community conversations around how we’re going to spend this money. We want to make sure that it’s a long-term investment … so everything from broadband to job training, investment in minority owned businesses, to investment [in] our children so that the funding will give back for decades to come.”

Munson: What message do you want to communicate to the VP today?

Elicker: ​“Stay the course. Keep going. We’re seeing incredible results now on the vaccine, on the economic support that we desperately needed to get out of Covid and beyond. And so my message to her is: Stay the course and keep having the impact that you’re having.”

5:21 p.m.: Harris concludes her remarks at the West Haven childcare center.

She ends by saying, ​“Thank you for sending the superintendent to DC!”

A crowd of 35 elected officials, parents of students, and school staff sit in socially distanced chairs to listen to the remarks.

Harris briefly goes outside of the center to greet people on the street. The pool cannot see what’s happening, but they can hear people cheering. People are lining the street on both sides for three blocks or so to cheer and take pictures.

5:54 p.m.: The vice president’s motorcade heads back to Tweed New Haven Airport.

6:08 p.m.: Harris boards Air Force 2. She waves to the pool before boarding. There are some crowds waving from outside the airport.

During the flight, the vice president’s staff brings Sally’s Apizza back to the press for everyone to eat.

Harris comes back to the back of the plane to speak to the press for a 10-minute off the record chat.

7:30 p.m.: The plane lands at Joint Base Andrews.