Washington — Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday night time delivered her closing argument towards former President Donald Trump on the similar web site he inspired his supporters to “combat like hell” on Jan. 6, 2021, earlier than they marched to the U.S. Capitol and tried unsuccessfully to halt the certification of President Biden’s victory.
“We all know who Donald Trump is,” Harris stated. “He’s the one who stood at this very spot almost 4 years in the past and despatched an armed mob to the US Capitol to overturn the need of the folks in a free and honest election, an election that he knew he misplaced.”
“America, we all know what Donald Trump has in thoughts. Extra chaos. Extra division. And insurance policies that assist these on the very prime and harm everybody else. I supply a special path. And I ask to your vote,” she stated.
Harris’ speech, in entrance of a large crowd on the Ellipse close to the White Home, was meant to attract a distinction between her imaginative and prescient for the nation and Trump’s as she seeks to win over undecided voters every week earlier than Election Day.
She referred to as her Republican rival “unstable,” “obsessive about revenge,” “consumed with grievance” and “out for unchecked energy.” She stated Trump would return to the White Home “with an enemies record,” whereas she would “stroll in with a to-do record.”
“Donald Trump has spent a decade attempting to maintain the American folks divided and afraid of one another. That is who he’s,” she stated. “However America, I’m right here tonight to say: that is not who we’re.”
“We’ve to cease pointing fingers and begin locking arms. It’s time to flip the web page on the drama and the battle, the concern and division. It’s time for a brand new technology of management in America,” she stated. “I’m prepared to supply that management as the subsequent president of the US of America.”
Harris additionally pledged to make Individuals’ lives higher via “widespread sense options” and “search widespread floor.”
“I pledge to take heed to consultants, to those that can be impacted by the selections I make and to individuals who disagree with me. Not like Donald Trump, I do not consider individuals who disagree with me are the enemy. He needs to place them in jail. I will give them a seat at my desk,” she stated.
Previewing the speech, Harris marketing campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon stated the Ellipse was chosen as a result of “it is a spot that definitely we consider helps crystallize the selection on this election.”
“We all know a variety of these undecided voters, they’re exhausted,” she stated. “They’re definitely pissed off by the state of the partisanship and divided political system that basically was outlined below Donald Trump.”
On Monday, Harris advised reporters that Trump’s rally at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York Metropolis a day earlier underscored her argument towards him. Audio system at Trump’s occasion made offensive, crude and racist remarks about minorities and Harris.
“That is why individuals who previously supported Donald Trump, have voted for him, are supporting me, voting for me,” she stated. “He followers the gasoline of hate and division, and that is why persons are exhausted with him.”
Whereas getting ice cream in Baltimore, Maryland, on Tuesday, Mr. Biden advised reporters he could be watching Harris’ speech. Explaining why he wouldn’t be there in particular person, he stated, “as a result of it is for her, it is her night time.”
Greater than 75,000 folks have been on the Nationwide Mall for Harris’ speech, in response to a marketing campaign official.
Aaron Navarro,
and
contributed to this report.