It was roughly 30 minutes into Kamala Harris‘ first book tour event to promote her look back at her brief 2024 presidential campaign, 107 Days, when what had been a joyful event in New York was disrupted by the first of at least three protesters yelling about “genocide” in Gaza.

Harris remained calm and stayed quiet as security removed the first demonstrator from the balcony, as others in the audience, seemingly filled with enthusiastic fans of the former vice president, urged the protester to leave and began chanting “Kamala.”

After the second protester, located somewhere else in the packed Town Hall theater in Manhattan, Harris tried to take charge of the situation, urging the audience to “bring the temperature down” and getting out of her seat and walking to the front of the stage.

“Unlike the current president of the United States, I understand what’s happening right now in Gaza,” she said. “What is happening to the Palestinian people is outrageous, and it breaks my heart.”

But, she admitted, “I’m not president right now; there’s nothing I can do.”

After the audience and protester quieted down, interviewer Aaron Parnas tried to segue into a broader topic from this disruption, asking the former vice president about balancing running for president with being the vice president.

“The first priority was my oath and responsibility and duty to be vice president,” Harris said in part, listing specifics she includes in the book including meeting with Israel‘s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I encourage anyone who wants to know how I was feeling about that at the time to read that part of the book,” but she said there was a “balance that had to be struck” between her “primary responsibility” as vice president and her fast-paced presidential campaign, which required nonstop visits to various swing states, “explaining to people, who may not have known, who I am, what I stand for, what I care about, our policies … [and] the stakes, and we can see the stakes now.”

Pivoting to President Trump’s handling of foreign policy, “Donald Trump has given Netanyahu a blank check to do whatever. Anybody see that spectacle of the UN yesterday?”

Then, a third protester quickly started screaming that the situation in the Middle East was the “fault” of the former vice president, now a private citizen after losing the 2024 presidential election.

“I understand the pain that that person just expressed,” Harris said. “I understand what this moment is it, whether it be what’s happening in Gaza or just so many things right now that are absolutely unconscionable and so painful to know could happen and that our president and our government is standing by and allowing people like [Vladimir] Putin and Kim Jong Un and Xi [Jinping] to get away with whatever. They’re laughing at us right now. They’re laughing at us. And so I get it, but I would like to continue with the conversation.”

Later, Harris returned to the situation in Gaza and explained how she had advocated for the Palestinian people during her time in the Biden administration.

But she noted, she was the vice president, “not the president” and “couldn’t make the decision.”

She also recalled what was previously shared in an excerpt that officials in the White House pushed back when she spoke about the situation in Gaza five months after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, commemorating the 59th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday attacks on voting rights activists in Selma, Alabama.

“I was the first person at the highest level of our United States government or administration to talk about the fact that the people in Gaza were starving,” she said, urging the demonstrators to read her speech from that day “to know that I understand your concern and how you feel. I think I do. I think I do. And the reality of it is that’s where we are right now.”

“I’ve been very candid that after I gave that speech … I took a lot of heat from the administration for doing that. There are a lot of people that did not like that. I spoke out so forcefully and candidly about my concern about what was happening in Gaza.”

Outside of the event, located in midtown Manhattan, there were a handful of protesters carrying Palestinian flags and signs, including one using a font similar to the one on the 107 Days cover to proclaim that Israel’s war in Gaza has lasted 717 days.

Harris also confirmed that she had indeed endorsed New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Monday, saying the two had spoken on the phone earlier in the day and that she was “excited” about his candidacy.

“You are bringing people in, and you are showing that there are voices that want to be heard, have felt left out and are now a part of what you are doing,” she said of the Democratic nominee. “And that is so powerful.”

Elsewhere during the conversation, moderated by independent journalist Parnas, Harris reflected on key moments from the book including her state of mind and firsthand experience on the day she learned President Joe Biden was dropping his reelection campaign, how she grieved like she did after her mother died on election night and her message for voters and the next generation.

Wednesday night’s event was the first of two that evening at New York’s Town Hall, with Harris set for upcoming in-person events in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Houston, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, Atlanta, Seattle, Miami and other cities across the U.S., as well as stops in Toronto and London.

Apart from the isolated protesters, Harris received a rock star-like reception, including a standing ovation when she took the stage, with audience members cheering her arrival, shouting that they loved her and applauding forcefully at various points during the event. Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff also received a warm welcome, with the crowd spotting the former second gentleman in the audience before his wife took the stage and cheered for him as well.

More to come.