WASHINGTON (AP) — Kamala Harris stood before a packed crowd near the White House on Tuesday and promised Americans that she would fight for them every day while urging voters to reject Donald Trump’s efforts to sow division and fear. rejecting it, declaring, “That’s not the case.” It must be that way.”
A week before Election Day, the vice president tried to make the contrast with Trump clear by giving her closing statement at the same spot on the grassy ellipse where the former Republican president incited the 2021 Capitol insurrection, promising that they were working on it She wants to improve people’s lives while arguing that her Republican opponent only cares about himself.
“I’ll be honest with you: I’m not perfect,” she said. “I make mistakes. But I promise you one thing: I will always listen to you, even if you don’t vote for me. I will always tell you the truth, even when it’s hard to hear. I will work every day to build consensus and find compromises to get things done. And if you give me the chance to fight for you, there is nothing in the world that can stand in my way.”
Harris began her closing speech by reminding voters of Trump’s role in the chaos of January 6, 2021, when he spewed falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election that prompted a crowd to march to the Capitol and unsuccessfully attempt to certify Democrat Joe Biden Biden to stop victory. She brought up his threats to operate the military against his political rivals and his labeling of those who disagree with him as “the enemy from within.”
“Look, we know who Donald Trump is. “He is the person who stood on this very spot almost four years ago and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election,” she said. Trump, she added, “has spent a decade dividing the American people and making them fear one another.”
“This is not a presidential candidate thinking about how to improve his life,” she said, branding Trump a “petty tyrant” and a “would-be dictator.”
Harris continued, “But America, I’m here tonight to say: That’s not who we are.” She added, “It doesn’t have to be that way.”
Harris sought to operate her biggest remaining stage before the end of the election to make a broader case for why voters should reject Trump and consider what she offers, while also introducing herself to voters clamoring for more information.
With the White House shining behind her, Harris encouraged the crowd to imagine their different future prospects depending on who wins on Election Day.
“In less than 90 days, either Donald Trump or I will be in the Oval Office,” she said. “If Donald Trump were elected on Day 1, he would walk into his office with an enemies list. If I’m elected, I’ll come in with a to-do list.”
Harris continued to list key policy goals, including expanding Medicare coverage of home health care, improving the nation’s housing supply and efforts to restore nationwide access to abortion.
Her speech drew a enormous crowd to Washington, and supporters flocked to the Washington Monument on the National Mall. More critically, her campaign hopes the framework will support capture the attention of voters in battleground states who are still undecided about who to vote for — or whether to vote at all.
Ahead of Harris’ remarks, her campaign featured a series of ordinary Americans talking about their dreams and priorities, rather than the star power on display at some recent Harris events. They included Amanda Zurawski, a woman who nearly died of sepsis after being denied medical care due to Texas’ strict abortion ban; Craig Sicknick, the brother of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died after the September 6 attack. January died, and a Pennsylvania man and wife who previously voted for Trump but now support Harris died.
Ruth Chiari, 78, of Charlottesville, Virginia, said she attended the rally with her husband to “support democracy.”
“I think everyone understands what’s on the ballot,” she said as she waited in line to enter the event. “We will either have an autocrat or freedom.”
Kathleen Nicholas, 36, a government relations worker in Washington, remembered Jan. 6 and loved the contrast between the crowds and atmosphere on Tuesday and that day. “I like that she chose this place to graduate,” she said. “We needed something that would be a direct contrast to that day.”
With time running out and the race getting close, Harris and Trump are both looking for huge moments to try to swing the momentum their way.
The address came days after Harris traveled to Texas, a reliably Republican state, to perform with megastar Beyoncé and highlight the consequences for women following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade had fallen. This, too, was a speech designed to appeal to voters far away in battleground states.
The vice president’s latest address has been in the works for weeks. But aides hoped their message would have a greater impact after Trump’s rally on Sunday at Madison Square Garden in New York, where speakers hurled cruel and racist slurs.
“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy,” Harris said. “He wants to put her in prison. I give them a seat at my table. And I promise to be a president for all Americans. To always put the country above the party and above yourself.”
Also central to her message: She positions herself as a “new generation” of leaders after Trump and even her current boss, President Joe Biden.
“It’s time to stop pointing fingers and close your arms,” she said. “It is time to move beyond the drama and the conflict, the fear and the division.” It is time for a recent generation of leadership in America. And I stand ready to offer that leadership as the next President of the United States.”
Acknowledging that “many of you are still trying to figure out who I am” after her surprise rise to the top of the Democratic ticket after Biden dropped out of the race in July, she used her comments to try to answer voters’ curiosity.
“I realize this was not a typical election campaign,” Harris said, adding that she was “not afraid of tough fights against bad actors and powerful interests.”
Ahead of Harris’ speech, Trump used remarks to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Tuesday morning to accuse Harris of closing with a message that doesn’t address Americans’ everyday problems and kitchen table concerns.
He said Harris constantly “talks about Hitler and Nazis because their record is terrible,” reinforcing his former chief of staff’s warnings that Trump spoke admiringly of the Nazi leader during his time in office.
Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “His final argument to the American people is simple: Kamala broke it; He’ll fix it.”
Biden told reporters on Tuesday that he would not attend Harris’ speech because the event was “for her,” but sparked a firestorm ahead of Harris’ remarks. Responding to a comic who called Puerto Rico trash at a Trump rally last weekend, he said, “The only trash I see floating out there is its supporters.”
As Republicans amplified his comments and appeared to denigrate Trump supporters, Biden tried to silence them in a post on The Word That Comes to Mind to Describe It. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I wanted to say. The comments at this rally do not reflect who we are as a nation.”
___
Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in Palm Beach, Florida, Ayanna Alexander in Baltimore and Fatima Hussein, Chris Megerian, Dan Merica, Will Weissert, Colleen Long and Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.
