“Which tweet? What tweet?” Ms. Harris said in response to the question about her use of the “modern day lynching” phrase. After a moment, she said, “I think the facts are still unfolding and I’m very concerned” about the initial allegation by Mr. Smollett. She said “there should be an investigation” and declined to comment further until it was complete.



At Ms. Harris’s town hall in Portsmouth, people squeezed in from wall to wall and lines stretched down the street for two blocks; there was an overflow crowd outside was turned away. Most members of the audience, which varied widely in age and was predominantly white, enthusiastically leapt to their feet repeatedly to applaud her liberal positions, even if she often lacked detail.

Ms. Harris said America was not working for working people, that health care costs were driving people to near bankruptcy and that she supported “Medicare for all.” She blasted the pharmaceutical companies for an “immoral” system in which they “gouge the public” and are more concerned with profits than public health. Although she was not asked about the state’s opioid crisis, one of the worst in the country, she brought it up a couple of times.

She railed against gun violence, described climate change as man-made and endorsed the Green New Deal. She lamented that money that should be spent on public education was instead going to mass incarceration. She endorsed comprehensive immigration reform.

In an answer to a question, she said she would support changes in voting laws that would allow for same-day registration and make Election Day a national holiday. In answer to another question, she said she supported renaming Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Some answers were more vague than others. One questioner, noting that the Democrats generally appeal to voters on the coasts, asked her how she would appeal to the heartland.

“I reject the notion that depending on where you were born, you don’t identify with someone else,” she responded. “This election will come down to who the American public believes will be a leader.”