A US senator embarked on a two-minute tangent about geese as he rallied for Kamala Harris alongside Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama.

Raphael Warnock devoted much of his brief speech at a rally in Georgia on Thursday to calling for people to be more like geese because they do not start “insurrections” or “shut the geese government down”.

The rally in Atlanta, which took place less than two weeks from polling day and featured several black celebrities, was explicitly aimed at winning back black men as polling shows their support for Ms Harris is dwindling.

Barack Obama, the former US President, also spoke at the event, having previously reprimanded African American men for not turning out for Ms Harris because of sexism.

Mr Warnock, a Georgia senator and pastor, told the crowd: “When I grow weary, I look up, and because I’m a preacher, I’d love to tell you that I see something profound in the heavens. But all I really see is birds flying by.

“But I like to see geese fly. Why? Because geese fly in a V-formation… when the one out front finally gets tired, he just moves further back in the formation.

“And when he moves back, she moves up and takes his place.

“And what I like about geese is that geese do this without an insurrection. Geese do this without shutting the geese government down.

“That’s because geese understand that my individual location is not as important as our collective destination,” Mr Warnock continued, before concluding his speech.