Meryl Streep, Chris Rock, Ben Stiller Join Oprah Winfrey in Live Event Uniting Zooms for Kamala Harris Groups

Several A-listers were among the thousands who joined a live-streamed event Thursday, hosted by Oprah Winfrey, that united the many grassroots political groups supporting Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.

At the beginning of the Unite For America call, Winfrey shouted out Meryl Streep, Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez, Tracee Ellis Ross and Bryan Cranston for Zooming in. She also highlighted the grassroots groups that have hosted their own Zoom events supporting Harris in recent months, including Win with Black Women, White Dudes for Harris, Win with Black Men, Republicans for Harris, Swifties for Kamala, among others.

“I have never felt this much joy and optimism in a campaign in a long time,” the Breaking Bad actor said. “I’m just so appreciative of Kamala to be able to bring back that sense of optimism and to squash the cynicism and the vitriol and the rancor that just seems to be floating all around Washington. And I hope that at that we’re going to ride this wave into Washington. I’m here, I’m here to support. I can’t be happier for this candidate. I think she’s going to be a terrific president.”

Comedian Rock added, “I wanna bring my daughters to the White House to meet this Black woman president. … I think she would make a great president and I’m ready to turn the page, man. All of the hate and the negativity. It’s gotta stop.”

The Zoolander actor praised Harris’ speech at the Democratic National Convention last month and said the feeling of the energy “kind of going from a stop Trump mode into a go Kamala mode” has been “just incredible.”

Later in the event, Roberts applauded Winfrey for hosting an event “to talk, to listen, to be heard, to have this back and forth is so unique in this campaign.” The actress also noted that this will be the first time her children are able to vote in an election, and she “couldn’t be more excited for them to have the legacy to say that their first vote they ever cast for president was for you. I have just chills saying that out loud.”

Ross also said the live-streamed event is “exciting because I believe in democracy, I believe in the future of our country and reproductive freedom, bodily autonomy, women leading, I believe in decency. The idea of leading with joy and kindness has always been in my DNA and I’m here both for the seriousness of this election but the joy with which it is being handled. It is stunning.”

After shouting out “all the amazing mothers,” Ross added that as a “52-year-old childless woman,” she’s learned that “you do not need to push out a baby to help push humanity forward.”

Elsewhere on the Unite For America call, Streep said she feels “the word of the day has been preventable,” adding that “all of this, the surround of hatred and venom and toxicity and encouraging some segment of Americans to hate other segments of Americans,” is preventable.”

“It’s just crazy and nobody wants it,” the actress continued. “We’re done, we’re done with it.”

Winfrey also brought out Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer before Harris joined her onstage to answer voters’ questions about border security, her economic plan, the rising cost of living, women’s reproductive rights and gun violence, among other topics.

“I look around at these screens, Oprah, I look at who’s in the room and this is America,” Harris said. “I think in this moment, where we’ve dealt with so much that I think is quite exhausting around powerful forces that would try and divide us and try to have us as Americans pointing fingers at each other, that this movement that is about reminding each other that we have so much more in common than what separates us is so critically important.”

The vice president said her campaign is “about the strength of who we are as Americans and this movement that we’re in about, as I like to say, ‘Seeing in the face of a stranger, a neighbor.’”

After Harris replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket for the 2024 presidential race, grassroots groups have united people across the county on lengthy, celebrity-studded Zoom calls, raising millions for the vice president’s campaign.