Kamala Harris has told Americans that Donald Trump’s efforts to sow division and fear are “not who we are”.
She reinforced her campaign’s closing argument by delivering it from the same site where the Republican former president stoked the Capitol insurrection on January 6 2021.
One week from election day, the vice president used the address from the grassy Ellipse near the White House to pledge to Americans she would work to improve their lives, while arguing that her Republican opponent is only in it for himself.
Mr Trump “has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other: That’s who he is,” Ms Harris said. “But America, I am here tonight to say: That’s not who we are.”
She reminded voters of Mr Trump’s role in the events of January 6 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.
She did not deliver a treatise on democracy — a staple of President Joe Biden’s own attempts to draw a contrast with Mr Trump.
Instead she aimed to make a broader case for why voters should reject Mr Trump and consider what she offers, while introducing herself to voters still clamouring for more information and encouraging the crowd to visualise their divergent futures hanging in the balance on election day.
“He has an enemies list of people he intends to prosecute,” Ms Harris said. “He says one of his highest priorities is to set free the violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers on January 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. 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.
America, let us turn the page and start writing the next chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told. pic.twitter.com/kkUbJ9v3ax
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 30, 2024
Ahead of Ms Harris’ remarks, her campaign organised 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 programme 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 January 6 attack.
The address came days after Ms Harris travelled to Texas, a reliably Republican state, to appear with megastar Beyonce and emphasise the consequences for women after the US 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 Mr Trump’s rally on Sunday at Madison Square Garden in New York, where speakers hurled cruel and racist insults.
The Democratic nominee 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.
She 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,” Ms 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 was positioning herself as a “new generation” of leader after Mr Trump and even her current boss, Mr Biden.
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” she 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 Mr Biden dropped out of the race in July, and used her remarks to try to answer voters’ curiosity.
“I recognise this has not been a typical campaign,” Ms 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. 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 the speech, Mr Trump used remarks to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to accuse Ms Harris of closing with a message that does not address everyday Americans’ day-to-day struggles and kitchen-table concerns.
He said Mr Harris keeps “talking about Hitler, and Nazis, because her record’s horrible”, a reference to the vice president amplifying the warnings from his former chief of staff that Mr Trump spoke admiringly of the Nazi leader while in office.
