WASHINGTON (AP) — Kamala Harris told Americans on Tuesday that Donald Trump’s efforts to sow division and fear are “not who we are” as she reinforced her campaign’s closing argument by delivering it from the same site where the Republican former president fomented the Capitol insurrection in 2021.
One week out from Election Day, the vice president used the address from the grassy Ellipse near the White House to pledge to Americans that she would work to improve their lives while arguing that her Republican opponent is only in it for himself.
Trump "has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other: That’s who he is,” Harris said. “But America, I am here tonight to say: That’s not who we are.”
Delivering her capstone speech from the place where Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, spewed falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election that inspired a crowd to march to the Capitol and try unsuccessfully to halt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's victory, Harris reminded voters of Trump's role nearly four years ago and his focus on his own self-interest.
“Look, we know who Donald Trump is. He is the person who stood at this very spot nearly 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.
But Harris did not deliver a treatise on democracy — a staple of President Joe Biden’s own attempts to draw a contrast with Trump. Instead she aimed to make a broader case for why voters should reject Trump and consider what she offers, while introducing herself to voters still clamoring for more information and encouraging the crowd to visualize their divergent futures hanging in the balance on Election Day.
“He has an enemies list of people he intends to prosecute,” Harris said. “He says one of his highest priorities is to set free the violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers on Jan. 6. Donald Trump intends to use the United States military against American citizens who simply disagree with him. People he calls 'the enemy from within.' This is not a candidate for president who is thinking about how to make your life better.”
Her speech drew a massive crowd to Washington, with an overflow crowd spilling under the Washington Monument on the National Mall. More critically, her campaign hopes the setting will help catch the attention of battleground state voters who remain on the fence about whom to vote for — or whether to vote at all.
Ahead of Harris' remarks, her campaign organized a speakers list of ordinary Americans, rather than the star power that has been featured at some of her recent events, or the parade of elected officials often in the program at Washington events. They included Amanda Zurawski, a woman who nearly died from sepsis after being denied care under Texas' strict abortion ban, and Craig Sicknick, the brother of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack.
Ruth Chiari, 78, of Charlottesville, Virginia, was attending the rally with her husband to “support democracy.”
“I think everybody understands what’s on the ballot,” she said as she waited in line near the Treasury building to enter the event. “We’re either going to have an autocrat or freedom.”
Kathleen Nicholas, 36, a government relations worker in Washington, remembered Jan. 6 and loved the contrast of the crowd and atmosphere to that day. “I like she chose this place for her closing,” she said. “Having something that is a direct contrast to that day is what we needed.”
With time running out and the race tight, Harris and Trump have both sought big moments to try to shift momentum their way.
The address came days after Harris traveled to Texas, a reliably Republican state, to appear with megastar Beyoncé and emphasize the consequences for women after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. That, too, was a speech meant to register with voters far away in the battleground states.
The vice president’s latest address has been in the works for weeks. But aides hoped her message would land with more impact after Trump’s rally Sunday at Madison Square Garden in New York, where speakers hurled cruel and racist insults. Harris said the event “highlighted the point that I’ve been making throughout this campaign.”
“He is focused and actually fixated on his grievances, on himself and on dividing our country,” she said.
Harris sought to lay out a pragmatic and forward-looking plan for the country, including reminding voters about her economic proposals and pledging to work for access to reproductive care, including abortion.
“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy,” Harris said. “He wants to put them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at my table. And I pledge to be a president for all Americans. To always put country above party and above self."
Also central to her message: positioning herself as a “new generation” of leader after Trump and even her current boss, Biden.
“It doesn’t have to be this way," Harris said. "We have to stop pointing fingers and start locking arms. It is time to turn the page on the drama and the conflict and confusion.”
She acknowledged that “many of you are still getting to know who I am" after her surprise elevation to the top of the Democratic ticket after Biden dropped out of the race in July, and used her remarks to try to answer voters' curiosity.
“I recognize this has not been a typical campaign,” Harris said, adding that she is “not afraid of tough fights against bad actors and powerful interests.”
“I’ll be honest with you: I’m not perfect,” she said. “I make mistakes. But here’s what I promise you: I will always listen to you, even if you don’t vote for me. I will always tell you the truth, even if it’s hard to hear. I will work every day to build consensus and reach compromise to get things done. And if you give me the chance to fight on your behalf, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way.”
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 everyday Americans’ day-to-day struggles and kitchen-table concerns.
He said Harris keeps “talking about Hitler, and Nazis, because her record’s horrible,” a reference to Harris amplifying the warnings from his former chief of staff that Trump spoke admiringly of the Nazi leader while in office.
Harris' aides, many of whom also advised Biden’s campaign before he dropped out, still believe that centering the race on who Trump is and how she's different will be their strongest message for voters.
“She’s already made her case, she’s presented the evidence. She’s offering up a summation tonight, and she has faith in the wisdom of the jury," campaign communications director Michael Tyler said.
Biden told reporters Tuesday that he will not attend Harris’ speech because the event is “for her,” but he planned to watch it on television. Ahead of Harris' remarks, Biden is reacted to a comic calling Puerto Rico garbage at a Trump rally last weekend by saying, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters."
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Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in Palm Beach, Florida, Ayana Alexander in Baltimore, and Fatima Hussein, Chris Megerian, Dan Merica, Will Weissert, Colleen Long and Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.
Zeke Miller, The Associated Press