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.

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.

Former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, a liberal icon who lost the most lopsided presidential election after bluntly telling voters to expect a tax increase if he won, died Monday. He was 93.

The death of the former senator, ambassador and Minnesota attorney general was announced in a statement from his family. No cause was cited.

Mondale followed the trail blazed by his political mentor, Hubert H. Humphrey, from Minnesota politics to the U.S. Senate and the vice presidency, serving under Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981.

His own try for the White House, in 1984, came at the zenith of Ronald Reagan’s popularity. Mondale’s selection of Rep. Geraldine Ferraro of New York as his running mate made him the first major-party presidential nominee to put a woman on the ticket, but his declaration that he would raise taxes helped define the race.

On Election Day, he carried only his home state and the District of Columbia. The electoral vote was 525-13 for Reagan — the biggest landslide in the Electoral College since Franklin Roosevelt defeated Alf Landon in 1936. (Sen. George McGovern got 17 electoral votes in his 1972 defeat, winning Massachusetts and Washington, D.C.)

“I did my best,” Mondale said the day after the election, and blamed no one but himself.

“I think you know I’ve never really warmed up to television,” he said. “In fairness to television, it never really warmed up to me.”

Years later, Mondale said his campaign message had proven to be the right one.

“History has vindicated me that we would have to raise taxes,” he said. “It was very unpopular, but it was undeniably correct.”

In 2002, state and national Democrats looked to Mondale when Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., was killed in a plane crash less than two weeks before Election Day. Mondale agreed to stand in for Wellstone, and early polls showed him with a lead over the Republican candidate, Norm Coleman.

But the 53-year-old Coleman, emphasizing his youth and vigor, out-hustled the then-74-year-old Mondale in an intense six-day campaign. Mondale was also hurt by a partisan memorial service for Wellstone, in which thousands of Democrats booed Republican politicians in attendance. One speaker pleaded: “We are begging you to help us win this election for Paul Wellstone.”

Polls showed the service put off independents and cost Mondale votes. Coleman won by 3 percentage points.

“The eulogizers were the ones hurt the most,” Mondale said after the election. “It doesn’t justify it, but we all make mistakes. Can’t we now find it in our hearts to forgive them and go on?”

It was a particularly bitter defeat for Mondale, who even after his loss to Reagan had taken solace in his perfect record in Minnesota.

“One of the things I’m most proud of,” he said in 1987, “is that not once in my public career did I ever lose an election in Minnesota.”

Years after the 2002 defeat, Mondale returned to the Senate to stand beside Democrat Al Franken in 2009 when he was sworn in to replace Coleman after a drawn-out recount and court battle.

Mondale started his career in Washington in 1964, when he was appointed to the Senate to replace Humphrey, who had resigned to become vice president. Mondale was elected to a full six-year term with about 54% of the vote in 1966, although Democrats lost the governorship and suffered other election setbacks. In 1972, Mondale won another Senate term with nearly 57% of the vote.

His Senate career was marked by advocacy of social issues such as education, housing, migrant workers and child nutrition. Like Humphrey, he was an outspoken supporter of civil rights.

Mondale tested the waters for a presidential bid in 1974 but ultimately decided against it. “Basically I found I did not have the overwhelming desire to be president, which is essential for the kind of campaign that is required,” he said in November 1974.

In 1976, Carter chose Mondale as No. 2 on his ticket and went on to unseat Gerald Ford.

As vice president, Mondale had a close relationship with Carter. He was the first vice president to occupy an office in the White House, rather than in a building across the street. Mondale traveled extensively on Carter’s behalf, and advised him on domestic and foreign affairs.

While he lacked Humphrey’s charisma, Mondale had a droll sense of humor.

When he dropped out of the 1976 presidential sweepstakes, he said, “I don’t want to spend the next two years in Holiday Inns.”

Reminded of that shortly before he was picked as Carter’s running mate, Mondale said, “I’ve checked and found that they’re all redecorated, and they’re marvelous places to stay.”

Mondale never backed away from his liberal principles.

“I think that the country more than ever needs progressive values,” Mondale said in 1989.

That year, Democrats tried to persuade him to challenge Minnesota GOP Sen. Rudy Boschwitz, but he decided against making the race, saying it was time to make way for a new generation.

“One of the requirements of a healthy party is that it renews itself,” he said at the time. “You can’t keep running Walter Mondale for everything.”

That paved the way for Wellstone to win the Democratic nomination, and go on to upset Boschwitz. Wellstone had been preparing to take on Mondale in a primary but would have been a heavy underdog.

The son of a Methodist minister and a music teacher, Walter Frederick Mondale was born Jan. 5, 1928, in tiny Ceylon, Minnesota, and grew up in several small southern Minnesota towns.

He was only 20 when he served as a congressional district manager for Humphrey’s successful Senate campaign in 1948. His education, interrupted by a two-year stint in the Army, culminated with a law degree from the University of Minnesota in 1956.

Mondale began a law practice in Minneapolis and ran the successful 1958 gubernatorial campaign of Democrat Orville Freeman, who appointed Mondale state attorney general in 1960. Mondale was elected attorney general in the fall of 1960 and was reelected in 1962.

As attorney general, Mondale moved quickly into civil rights, antitrust and consumer protection cases. He was the first Minnesota attorney general to make consumer protection a campaign issue.

After his White House years, Mondale served from 1993-96 as President Bill Clinton’s ambassador to Japan, fighting for U.S. access to markets ranging from cars to cellular phones.

He helped avert a trade war in June 1995 over autos and auto parts, persuading Japanese officials to give American automakers more access to Japanese dealers and pushing Japanese carmakers to buy U.S. parts.

Mondale kept his ties to the Clintons. In 2008, he endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for president, switching his allegiance only after Barack Obama sealed the nomination.

When Democrats came to him after Wellstone’s death, Mondale was working at the Minneapolis law firm of Dorsey & Whitney and serving on corporate and nonprofit boards. He returned to the firm after the brief campaign.

Mondale and his wife, Joan Adams Mondale, were married in 1955. During his vice presidency, she pushed for more government support of the arts and gained the nickname “Joan of Art.” She had minored in art in college and worked at museums in Boston and Minneapolis.

The couple had two sons, Ted and William, and a daughter, Eleanor. Eleanor Mondale became a broadcast journalist and TV host, with credits including “CBS This Morning” and programs with E! Entertainment Television. Ted Mondale served six years in the Minnesota Senate and made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1998. William Mondale served for a time as an assistant attorney general.

Joan Mondale died in 2014 at age 83 after an extended illness.

Former President Jimmy Carter paid tribute to his former vice president, Walter "Fritz" Mondale, who died Monday, crediting his late "invaluable partner" with creating the vice presidency in its current form."Today I mourn the passing of my dear friend Walter Mondale, who I consider the best vice president in our country's history," Carter said in a statement Monday. "During our administration, Fritz used his political skill and personal integrity to transform the vice presidency into a dynamic, policy-driving force that had never been seen before and still exists today."Mondale, a Democrat, represented Minnesota in the Senate from 1964 until 1976, when he signed on as Carter's running mate. He served as Carter's No. 2 from 1977 to 1981, when he and Carter lost to Ronald Reagan and his running mate, George H.W. Bush.Carter's statement Monday continued, "He was an invaluable partner and an able servant of the people of Minnesota, the United States, and the world. Fritz Mondale provided us all with a model for public service and private behavior. Rosalynn and I join all Americans in giving thanks for his exemplary life, and we extend our deepest condolences to his family."Mondale won the Democratic presidential nomination himself in 1984, and made history by naming a woman, U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York, as his running mate before ultimately falling short to Reagan. He later served as the U.S. ambassador to Japan and the envoy to Indonesia under then-President Bill Clinton.Several lawmakers on both sides of the aisle also expressed their condolences Monday."I loved Walter Mondale and I'm not the only one," Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota said in a statement. "Mondale was a giant not only because of the positions he held -- Minnesota Attorney General, U.S. Senator, Vice President, Democratic Presidential candidate and Ambassador -- but because of the work that he did."Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said Mondale was "someone who always treated people with dignity and respect, and I was privileged to call him my friend and mentor."Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa called Mondale a great senator who "spoke the values of Minnesota & loved his state like I do Iowa."