Vice President Harris Spotlights 'Small Business Saturday' at Venice Bakery Amid Ongoing Hamas-Israel Hostage Exchange Talks

LOS ANGELES - Vice President Kamala Harris posted a short video this weekend showing her visit to Venice Bakery and Restaurant located at 10943 Venice Blvd. in Los Angeles to mark Small Business Saturday.

"It was wonderful to visit Venice Bakery & Restaurant on Small Business Saturday as we honor the work that small business owners and employees are doing across the nation to grow our economy and support our communities," Harris wrote on X in a message with the video. "When we invest in small businesses, we invest in America."

Accompanying Harris and her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, were Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Los Angeles, and Isabel Casillas Guzman, administrator of the Small Business Administration.

During the visit, Harris addressed ongoing developments in the Hamas-Israel hostage exchange.

The U.S, Qatar, and Egypt are actively engaged in talks to expedite a resolution and CNN recently reported a group of hostages departing Gaza in a Red Cross Convoy. Notably, 24 hostages were freed from Gaza, and 39 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli jails during the preceding four-day cease-fire

“We’re extremely grateful that hostages were released yesterday,” the Vice President said in front of the Venice Bakery, “and we’re looking forward to again another grouping released today.”

“There were some issues and challenges around implementation,” she said addressing this morning’s complications, “President Biden spoke with the Emir (of Qatar) to resolve those issue and we do believe they are being resolved.”

Speaking about the four-day truce, Harris said, “This moment of pause is extraordinarily important to get humanitarian aid in. It’s also important to ensure that hostages can come out. So, we’re going to continue to be diligent and vigilant in doing all that we can in that regard to ensure that there’s humanitarian aid going in, and that hostages are going out and our highest priority, of course, are the American citizens being held.”

The Vice President and Second Gentleman's Saturday mid-day presence stood in stark contrast to the protests they encountered earlier in the week at a re-election fundraiser. During that event, two dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators made their voices heard, with reports of some individuals throwing fake blood outside the residence of entertainment attorney Cliff Gilbert-Lurie and Leslie Gilbert-Lurie, where the fundraiser took place.

Harris maintains a residence in Brentwood and occasionally visits the area on weekends.