WASHINGTON – Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, against the backdrop of the White House, delivered what she called her closing argument Tuesday night, pressing voters to support her bid over that of “unstable” Republican candidate Donald Trump.
The 30-minute speech at the Ellips took place in the same place where then-President Trump held a rally almost four years ago before his supporters stormed the Capitol. Harris emphasized Democrats’ central argument that another term for the former president would pose a threat to the country’s future.
“This election is more than just a choice between two parties and two different candidates,” Harris said. “It’s a choice whether we have a country rooted in freedom for every American or one ruled by chaos and division.”
Harris invoked the concept of the United States “born when we wrested freedom from a petty tyrant.” Since then, she said, Americans have fought for generations to protect and expand those freedoms, from those who marched in the civil rights movement to the soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy.
“They didn’t do it just to see us submit to the will of another petty tyrant,” she said. “We are not a vessel for the plans of would-be dictators.”
Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, said in a statement that “Trump’s closing argument to the American people is simple: Kamala broke it; he will fix it.”
Among the crowd of tens of thousands at the rally was LaShaun Martin, 52, of Prince George’s County, Maryland, who said she was voting for Harris because the vice president was “extremely positive.”
“She was for all people, Republicans and Democrats,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what background you come from. She truly wants to represent you and whatever it is that you need to be a wealthy person.
One week until election day
Harris’ speech came just a week before voting closed on November 5, following a history-making campaign that began when President Joe Biden withdrew from the race after a catastrophic one debate this summer.
Biden’s endorsement of Harris and broad Democratic support across the country forced the GOP to change its approach to the campaign as Democrats shifted their focus from policies Biden wanted to promote to policies critical to Harris.
In her remarks, Harris blasted Trump and his supporters for making disparaging remarks about immigrants in the country illegally, a centerpiece of his campaign.
“Politicians must stop treating immigration as an issue that can intimidate votes,” Harris said. “Instead, treat this as a serious challenge that we must ultimately solve together.”
Harris pledged to work with Congress on immigration policy, as well as a path to citizenship for farm workers and the more than 500,000 children brought into the country without authorization. They are known as Dreamers and participate in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Harris touched on several top policy issues, including housing affordability, nationwide abortion access, a ban on grocery store price gouging and expanding the child tax credit.
Reaching out to the undecided
Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler announced the speech earlier Tuesdaytelling reporters that the vice president would address directly “the undecided voters’ sense of frustration, their sense of exhaustion with the way our politics have looked during the Trump era – and offer them directly a vision that something is different, that something else is possible.”
Trump appeared on Sunday at a six-hour campaign event at Madison Square Garden in New York, prompting bipartisan condemnation of the comedian who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.”
Before Harris’ Tuesday speech, Trump made remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, accusing her of trying to divide the country and trying to distance herself from racist and vulgar remarks made during the rally by the comedian and other speakers.
Trump did not answer questions, but earlier in the day he told ABC News that he had not heard the comedian’s remarks.
“I don’t know him,” Trump said. “Someone put it there.”
With the presidential race essentially tied, Harris and Trump have focused their final campaign efforts on key swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
During her speech, Harris promised the audience that if elected, she would protect the institutions and democratic ideals that form the basis of American law. She also criticized Trump’s comments labeling Democrats as the “enemy from within.”
“The fact that someone disagrees with us does not make them an internal enemy,” Harris said. “They are family, they are neighbors, they are classmates, they are co-workers, they are countrymen, and as Americans we rise and fall together.”
Time to “turn the page”
Harris said the country must move beyond the ever-deepening polarization, which she described as a clear feature of Trump’s influence on American politics.
“Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep Americans divided and afraid of each other,” Harris said. “That’s what he is.”
In her speech to undecided voters, Harris proposed the possibility of leaving the Trump era behind.
“It is time to turn the page on drama and conflict, fear and division,” she said. “It is time for a new generation of leadership in America, and I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States.”
She said leadership would be based on bipartisan work.
“I commit to finding common ground and common sense solutions to make my life better. I have no intention of scoring political points. I care about progress,” she said. “I commit to listening to experts, those who will be affected by the decisions I make, and those who disagree with me. Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t think people who disagree with me are the enemy.”
During her speech, protesters advocated for an embargo on U.S. weapons sent to Israel as part of the war against Hamas. Several senators did so he also called for an arms embargo.
“Stop arming Israel. Now there’s an arms embargo,” one protester said before being escorted away.
Number of deaths over 43,000 Palestinians According to local health authorities in the Gaza Strip, there has been a division among Muslims, Arab Americans and anti-war Democrats. This stimulated the Non-Aligned National Movement which sent 30 delegates to the Democratic National Convention this summer.
After Harris spoke, nearly 100 pro-Palestinian protesters surrounded the exit of the campaign rally.
Harris supporters gather
The campaign finale in Washington was expected to attract more than 50,000 supporters, according to the local NBC affiliate. Harris campaign estimated 75,000 viewers showed up.
They included speeches from advocates such as a mother who was able to access affordable insulin for her son thanks to the Affordable Care Act; farmer couple from Pennsylvania, who were former Trump voters; and Craig Sicknick, brother of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died following the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
“(Trump) incited a crowd to riot while my brother and his fellow officers risked their lives,” Craig Sicknick said. “Now Mr. Trump is promising to pardon the convicted criminals who attacked our Capitol, killing my brother and injuring over 140 other officers. This is just wrong.”
The Department of Justice brought charges over 1,500 defendants in the January 6 attack.
Craig Sicknick endorsed Harris, whom he called a “true leader.”
Family farmers Bob and Kristina Lange of Malvern, Pennsylvania, said they are lifelong Republicans but will be voting for Harris in this election.
“It’s very clear that Donald Trump doesn’t care about helping hard-working people like us,” Bob Lange said. “He is too focused on seeking revenge and vengeance to care about what we need. We deserve better.”
The couple has appeared in numerous digital ads targeting rural voters in Pennsylvania.
History and emotions
Attendees from Illinois to local residents traveled to the Ellipse to speak.
Tiffany Norwood, 56, of Washington, D.C., said she attended the rally with her 87-year-old mother, Mary Ann Norwood, “because of the history and the emotion.”
“I feel like we need something different in the United States, and she offers just that,” said Tiffany Norwood, who identified herself as an entrepreneur. “Her plan for the economy, for the future, for women, for everyone. “I like the fact that it’s a big umbrella that covers the melting pot of the United States.”
Some participants were not elderly enough to vote, such as 13-year-old Grace Ledford of Champaign, Illinois.
The teenager said her first political rally felt “like a big party.”
“Kamala would be a great president because, first of all, she is a woman and she is African American,” she said. “Many male presidents don’t know how hard it is to be a woman, especially Trump.”
Daniel Nyquist, 79, of Rockville, Maryland, stood in the crowd wearing a hat that read “Make America Less Hateful.”
“It’s an alternative to the Trump theme,” Nyquist said, pointing to his hat. “He is a big promoter of hate, and this is to counteract that.”
