Harris gives closing argument speech at the Ellipse, offering "a different path" than Trump
Washington — Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday night delivered her closing argument against former President Donald Trump at the same site he encouraged his supporters to "fight like hell" on Jan. 6, 2021, before they marched to the U.S. Capitol and tried unsuccessfully to halt the certification of President Biden's victory.
"We know who Donald Trump is," Harris said. "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, an election that he knew he lost."
"America, we know what Donald Trump has in mind. More chaos. More division. And policies that help those at the very top and hurt everyone else. I offer a different path. And I ask for your vote," she said.
Harris' speech, in front of a massive crowd at the Ellipse near the White House, was meant to draw a contrast between her vision for the country and Trump's as she seeks to win over undecided voters a week before Election Day. The Harris campaign estimated there were 75,000 people in attendance, with crowds overflowing onto the National Mall all the way to the Jefferson Memorial.
She called her Republican rival "unstable," "obsessed with revenge," "consumed with grievance" and "out for unchecked power." She said Trump would return to the White House "with an enemies list," while she would "walk in with a to-do list."
"Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That's who he is," she said. "But America, I am here tonight to say: that's not who we are."
"We have to stop pointing fingers and start locking arms. It is time to turn the page on the drama and the conflict, the fear and division. It is time for a new generation of leadership in America," she said. "I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States of America."
Harris also pledged to make Americans' lives better through "common sense solutions" and "seek common ground."
"I pledge to listen to experts, to those who will be impacted by the decisions I make and to people who disagree with me. Unlike Donald Trump, I don't believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. He wants to put them in jail. I'll give them a seat at my table," she said.
Previewing the speech, Harris campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon said the Ellipse was chosen because "it's a place that certainly we believe helps crystallize the choice in this election."
"We know a lot of these undecided voters, they're exhausted," she said. "They're certainly frustrated by the state of the partisanship and divided political system that really was defined under Donald Trump."
On Monday, Harris told reporters that Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City a day earlier underscored her argument against him. Speakers at Trump's event made offensive, crude and racist remarks about minorities and Harris.
"That's why people who formerly supported Donald Trump, have voted for him, are supporting me, voting for me," she said. "He fans the fuel of hate and division, and that's why people are exhausted with him."
While getting ice cream in Baltimore, Maryland, on Tuesday, Mr. Biden told reporters he would be watching Harris' speech. Explaining why he would not be there in person, he said, "because it's for her, it's her night."