Vice President Kamala Harris visited an emergency operations center in Augusta, Georgia Wednesday where she sat for a briefing and thanked assembled officials for “doing God’s work.”
Watch Harris’ remarks in the player above.
Harris is in the state getting an up-close look at the destruction wrought last week by Hurricane Helene.
“You all leave home, you leave family members who are in need of help and support to go and help people who are perfect strangers to you,” Harris told the emergency workers. “And you do this work in these moments of crisis around the clock with an intention and with a level of care and love for community that is unmatched. And so I’m here to thank you.”
Harris’ visit presented an additional political test in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. She’s trying to step into a role for which President Joe Biden is well known — showing the empathy that Americans expect in times of tragedy — in the closing stretch of her White House campaign.
WATCH: Biden and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper hold briefing on Helene recovery
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Harris’ campaign manager and former state director in her Senate office, said the vice president uses her experience consoling victims as a courtroom prosecutor to connect with people after tragedies.
She said the trip to Georgia was a chance for Harris “to continue to show her leadership and her ability to get things done, versus Donald Trump and JD Vance who want to dismantle the basic services and the role that the government should play.”