WATCH: VP Harris unknowingly claps along to Spanish song in Puerto Rico protesting her visit, stops once aide translates
On Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris unknowingly clapped along to a song sung in Spanish that was protesting her visit to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
A video of the incident shows a group of protesters beating a drum outside the Goyoco community center as a man sings a song. The vice president was seen with a big smile on her face as she clapped along to the beat until the center’s executive director, Mariana Reyes, appeared to whisper into her ear what the song was about.
According to the New York Post, the man was singing, “We want to know, Kamala, what did you come here for? We want to know.”
“The vice president is here making history. We want to know what she thinks of the colony,” he added. “Long live Free Palestine and Haiti, too.”
Fox News reported that Harris, accompanied by the Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Adrianne Todman, traveled to Puerto Rico to visit residential homes that had to be restored after the island was devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
“What we all need to do then is just supply the community and the talent here with the capacity and the resources,” the Vice-President said in a statement. “President Joe Biden and I have been very intentional about what we are doing for the leaders and the people and the families of Puerto Rico.”
“So far, our administration has invested over $140 billion in Puerto Rico,” she added.
In October 2022, President Biden visited Puerto Rico and claimed that the island hadn’t “been taken very good care of” and to “see the state of affairs.”
In 2017, Hurricane Maria hit the US-controlled territory and caused a massive humanitarian disaster which was exacerbated by corruption and efficiencies in the local government. After the US attempted to provide relief, It was revealed that over 10 million water bottles sent by the Trump administration were left on the airport’s tarmac, and the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority awarded a $300 million no-bid contract to a Montana company to rebuild the electrical grid. However, the company was discovered to be linked to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, and the contract was canceled.