Vice President Kamala Harris will make the “ closing argument ” for her presidential campaign Tuesday from the same site where Donald Trumpfomented the Capitol insurrection, hoping it offers a stark visualization of the alternate futures that voters face if she or Trump takes over the Oval Office.
One week out from Election Day, Harris was to use her 7:30 p.m. ET address from the grassy Ellipse near the White House to pledge to Americans that she will work to improve their lives while arguing that her Republican opponent is only in it for himself.
She hoped to sharpen that contrast by 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.
With time running out and the race tight, Harris and Trump have both sought big moments to try to shift momentum their way.
“It’s a place that certainly we believe helps crystalize the choice in this election,” Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said of the setting, calling it “a stark visualization of probably the most infamous example of Donald Trump and how he’s used his power for bad.”
Campaign aides stressed that Harris will not deliver a treatise on democracy — a staple of President Joe Biden’s own attempts to draw a contrast with Trump — or spend too much time focusing directly on the shocking imagery of that day. Harris aides said the vice president aims to make a broader case for why voters should reject Trump and consider what she offers.
“There’s a big difference between he and I,” Harris told reporters Monday in previewing her speech. “If he were elected, on day one he’s going to sit in the Oval Office working on his enemies list. On day one, if I am elected, which I fully expect to be, I will be working on behalf of the American people on my to-do list.”
Her campaign hoped to draw a massive crowd to Washington for the event. But, 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.
The address comes 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 was expected to use her speech 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.
“That stark contrast has real power when she’s delivering solutions and Trump is sowing division and hate,” O'Malley Dillon said.
Also central to her message: positioning herself as a “new generation” of leader after Trump and even her current boss, Biden. She's going to be “talking about what her new generation of leadership really means and centering that around the American people and what they care about," O’Malley Dillon said.
As for Trump, Harris said Monday, “People are literally ready to turn the page. They’re tired of it.”
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.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said it was important for battleground voters to be reminded of the consequences of their choice this fall and for Harris “to really drive home the stakes of this election and the clear contrast in the race.”
He said Harris had the stronger argument on economic policies, reproductive freedom and the matter of chaos vs. order, adding that she "has a vision that’s going to bring more order and more hopefulness and more joy.”
Harris was spending the day ahead of her speech taping television interviews airing in Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and Spanish language radio in Pennsylvania, her campaign said.