Vice President Kamala Harris's office is trying to contain the fallout from an exchange earlier this week between the vice president and a student who characterized Israel's actions toward Palestinians as "an ethnic genocide and a displacement of people."

While visiting a political science class at George Mason University on Tuesday to honor national voter registration day, Harris took questions from three students, including one who brought up the nation's funding of Israel in a lengthy question.

"You brought up how the power of the people and demonstrations and organizing is very valuable in America. I see that over the summer, there have been, like, protests and demonstrations and astronomical numbers done with Palestine, but then just a few days ago there were funds allocated to continue backing Israel, which hurts my heart because it's an ethnic genocide and a displacement of people — the same that happened in America and I'm sure you're aware of this," the student said in part of her question, saying that the funding occurs as Americans suffer at home.

"And I feel like there's a lack of listening, and I just feel like I need to bring that up because it affects my life and people I really care about's life ...," the student added.

Harris responded, "I'm glad you did."

"And again, this is about the fact that your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth cannot be suppressed, and it must be heard. ... Our goal should be unity, but not uniformity," Harris said. "And the point that you're making about policies that relate to Middle East policy, foreign policy. We still have healthy debates in our country, about what is the right path. And nobody's voice should be suppressed on that."

The lack of push back from Harris to the student while taking questions during the visit has become the latest hiccup for her office that faced a turbulent summer, fueled in part by messaging mishaps. This latest communication mishap comes on a particularly fraught topic as progressives and other activists have been putting pressure on Democrats to take a more critical stance toward Israel, which has long enjoyed bipartisan support in Washington.

After that exchange, Harris' senior staff has been reaching out to the heads of several leading pro-Israel organizations, per a source familiar with Harris' office.

Her team began reaching out to the heads of several leading Jewish organizations after those leaders reached out to the White House to express their concerns, two people with direct knowledge of the conversations said. Harris' deputy national security adviser Phil Gordon and Herbie Ziskend, the vice president's deputy communications director, led the outreach, the sources said, making clear that Harris's silence did not equate agreement with the students' claims of "ethnic genocide."

"There's a recognition that the impression left by her failure to correct the student is problematic and does not reflect her commitment to a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, nor that of the President and the Administration," William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told CNN.

Harris' team reached out to the heads of at least three organizations: the Democratic Majority for Israel, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Anti-Defamation League.

"This was touching base with her friends and allies and supporters who know that she's very strong in her commitment to defending Israel and defending Israel's security," the source familiar with Harris' added.

In a statement, Harris' spokeswoman Symone Sanders said, "The vice president strongly disagrees with the student's characterization of Israel."

"Throughout her career, the Vice President has been unwavering in her commitment to Israel and to Israel's security. While visiting George Mason University to discuss voting rights, a student voiced a personal opinion during a political science class," Sanders said.

Harris' office, handled in part by her communications team, has taken a deliberate stance in trying to clean up this latest issue. An additional source familiar with Harris' office's outreach told CNN the vice president's team distributed facts on her record on Israel in her defense to allies, emphasizing her unwavering commitment to Israel.

"We know Vice President Harris and we know her record on Israel has been consistent and unwavering. At no time did we doubt her support of Israel. We wanted additional context to understand what occurred," Haile Soifer, CEO of Jewish Democratic Council of America and former national security adviser to Harris in her Senate office, told CNN.

Harris office was in touch with Soifer's group as well others. The CEO of the Anti-Defamation League on Thursday said he had spoken with Harris' office after the vice president's interaction.

"Just spoke with @VP office. Glad to hear her confirm she is proud of her record supporting #Israel, and knows claim it is committing 'ethnic genocide' is patently false," Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted Thursday. "Looking fwd to a clearing of the record so there's no ambiguity that what that student said was hateful/wrong."

Mark Mellman, President of the influential Democratic Majority for Israel, said Thursday he had also spoken with Harris' senior staff.

"We were pleased Vice President Harris's senior staff reached out to us today to confirm what we already knew: Her 'commitment to Israel's security is unwavering,' and she 'strongly disagrees with the George Mason student's characterization of Israel,'" Mellman wrote in a statement. "The Biden-Harris Administration, as well as President Biden and Vice President Harris personally, have exemplary pro-Israel records, for which we are immensely grateful."

The House last week easily approved $1 billion in funding for Israel's Iron Dome Aerial Defense System, advancing the bill to the Senate for consideration with just eight Democrats and one Republican voting against the measure, and two voting "present."

The aerial defense system, which has for years been heavily sponsored by the United States, is designed to intercept rockets midair — by targeting them and firing interceptor missiles to destroy them — before they can kill civilians living in Israel. This week's legislation specifically would provide funding to replace missile interceptors that were used during heavy fighting with Hamas in May.

Last spring, a number of congressional Democrats ramped up pressure on the Biden administration to more forcefully engage on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as violence in the region intensified. "It's time to have serious conversations about conditioning military aid," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, said at the time.

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Vice President-elect Kamala Harris appears on the cover of Vogue magazine's February issue, but her team says there's a problem: the photo isn't the shot both sides had agreed upon.

Instead of appearing in the power suit she wore to the cover shoot, Harris is seen casually dressed and wearing Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers.

Harris sometimes campaigned wearing them.

A person familiar with the negotiations with Vogue says Harris' team wasn't aware of the switch until images of the cover leaked out Saturday night.

Harris' team declined formal comment.

The individual spoke on condition of anonymity.

Per The Associated Press, Vogue explained in a statement that the informal image of Harris was used for the cover because the picture captured an “authentic, approachable nature, which we feel is one of the hallmarks of the Biden-Harris administration.”

The magazine added that they released both images as digital magazine covers to “respond to the seriousness of this moment in history, and the role she has to play leading our country forward," the AP reported.

A South Florida nurse has pleaded guilty to making death threats against Vice President Kamala Harris.

A Justice Department press release said Niviane Petit Phelps, 39, pled guilty Friday to six counts of making threats to kill the vice president.

According to the release, Phelps admitted to sending her husband, who was in prison, 30-second video clips of her threatening to kill Harris in February.

In the clips, Phelps said she would assassinate Harris within 50 days, federal prosecutors said.

Federal prosecutors said Phelps recorded some of the clips while her children recorded others.

After she sent the videos, Phelps said she also sent a photograph of herself at a gun range holding a firearm with a target sheet.

Two days later, she applied for a concealed weapon permit.

She later told investigators that she "doesn’t know” what would have happened if they hadn't shown up at her residence.

She is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 19 at 2 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence has called Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to offer his congratulations.

That's according to two people familiar with the conversation who were granted anonymity to share details of a private conversation.

One of the people familiar with the Thursday afternoon conversation described it as a “good call,” with Pence congratulating his successor and offering assistance.

The call comes less than a week before President-elect Joe Biden and Harris are set to take office, next Wednesday.

It marks the first contact between elected officials from the outgoing and incoming administrations.

SINGAPORE —

Vice President Kamala Harris met with Singapore's president and prime minister to kick off a visit to Southeast Asia focused on strengthening ties with key allies in the region, a task complicated by the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The trip, which brings Harris to Singapore and then later to Vietnam this week, is aimed at broadening cooperation with both nations to offer a counterweight to China's growing influence in the region. She is expected to address economic and security issues as well as efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Harris participated in a welcome ceremony outside the Istana, the presidential palace, where she held her hand over her heart while a marching band played "The Star Spangled Banner." She then walked around the courtyard, reviewing the band, accompanied by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Loong then showed her a species of an orchid that was named in her honor, and Harris participated in a brief courtesy call with President Halimah Yacob, before heading into a series of bilateral meetings with the prime minister.

After her meetings, the vice president will participate in a joint news conference, and later visit the Changi Naval Base, where she'll speak to American sailors aboard the USS Tulsa, a combat ship.

On Tuesday, Harris will deliver a speech outlining the Biden administration's vision for the region, and meet with business leaders to discuss supply chain issues.

The trip marks Harris' second foreign trip — she visited Guatemala and Mexico in June — and will be the first time a U.S. vice president has visited Vietnam.

Singapore is the anchor of the U.S. naval presence in Southeast Asia and has a deep trade partnership with the U.S., but the country also seeks to maintain strong ties with China and a position of neutrality amid increasingly frosty U.S.-China relations.

Relations between the U.S. and China deteriorated sharply under Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, and the two sides remain at odds over a host of issues including technology, cybersecurity and human rights.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made their first overseas trips to Japan and South Korea. Austin traveled to Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines last month and he vowed U.S. support against Beijing's intrusions in the South China Sea.

Harris is expected to emphasize the need for a free and open Indo-Pacific region in her conversations with Singapore's and Vietnam's leaders.

Alexander Feldman, president and CEO of the US-ASEAN Business Council, said Harris will have to be careful in her conversations with Singapore's leaders not to focus too heavily on China, but to emphasize a positive, productive U.S. relationship with Singapore and Vietnam.

"Where she could fall into a trap is really trying to pit this as a U.S. versus China trip. it should be a U.S. trip to our friends and partners in Southeast Asia," Feldman said.

If China becomes the main focal point, he said, "that makes it harder for our friends to move forward across the region, not only in Singapore and Vietnam but beyond that."

Indeed, Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said in a recent interview that Singapore will "be useful but we will not be made use of" in its relations with both countries, and the nation's prime minister previously warned the U.S. against pursuing an aggressive approach to China.

Beijing, however, has seized on the visit, with China's official Xinhua News Agency issuing an editorial Saturday on Harris' trip portraying it as part of a drive to contain China.

Visits to Southeast Asia by senior Biden officials are aiming to "woo these countries to form a ring of containment against China. But Southeast Asian countries are reluctant to choose sides between China and the United States, and America's 'wishful plan' will end in failure," Xinhua said.

The U.S. approach is based on "outdated Cold War thinking and is intended to provoke troubles in their relations with China, create division and confrontation, and try to create a ring of containment," the editorial said.

While Harris navigates the challenging diplomacy surrounding the issue of China, she'll also face the task of reassuring key U.S. allies of America's commitment to Southeast Asia, in the wake of the tumultuous Afghanistan exit. Images of desperate Afghans mobbing American plans leaving Kabul have drawn comparisons to images from the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War.

Harris' aides have been careful to emphasize that while she remains deeply engaged in the situation in Afghanistan, the Southeast Asia trip was planned well before the recent events, and they say Harris' work in Singapore and Vietnam is important, independent of the developments in Afghanistan.

Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday as part of the Biden administration's effort to limit migration from Central American countries into the U.S.

The White House confirmed that Harris will travel to El Paso, Texas Friday with Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas.

During the White House press briefing Wednesday, press secretary Jen Psaki said the trip was part of "the coordinated effort between her office, her work, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services" to address the causes of increased migration.

Psaki later said that Harris hadn't visited earlier because she "didn't want to visit a time when it would be disruptive to efforts on the ground."

Biden tapped Harris earlier this year to lead his administration's effort to contain the large increase of migrants who have been encountered at the border by U.S. officials.

As part of that effort, Harris traveled to Guatemala and Mexico earlier this month to meet with foreign leaders about the root causes of the migration. She did not visit the border during that trip, prompting criticism from Republicans.

Amid her trip, during an interview with NBC's Lester Holt, Harris compared visiting the border with visiting Europe.

"At some point, you know, we are going to the border," Harris said in the interview.

"We've been to the border. So this whole, this whole, this whole thing about the border. We've been to the border. We've been to the border," Harri said.

"You haven't been to the border," Holt responded.

"I, and I haven't been to Europe. And I mean, I don't — I don't understand the point that you're making," Harris said "I'm not discounting the importance of the border."

This story is breaking and will be updated.