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WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris instructed People on Tuesday that Donald Trump’s efforts to sow division and concern are “not who we’re” as she bolstered her marketing campaign’s closing argument by delivering it from the identical website the place the Republican former president fomented the Capitol rebellion in 2021.
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One week out from Election Day, the vice-president used the deal with from the grassy Ellipse close to the White Home to pledge to People that she would work to enhance their lives whereas arguing that her Republican opponent is just in it for himself.
Trump “has spent a decade making an attempt to maintain the American individuals divided and afraid of one another: That’s who he’s,” Harris mentioned. “However America, I’m right here tonight to say: That’s not who we’re.”
Delivering her capstone speech from the place the place Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, spewed falsehoods in regards to the 2020 presidential election that impressed a crowd to march to the Capitol and check out unsuccessfully to halt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory, Harris reminded voters of Trump’s position almost 4 years in the past and his concentrate on his personal self-interest.
“Look, we all know who Donald Trump is. 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 desire of the individuals in a free and truthful election,” she mentioned.
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However Harris didn’t ship a treatise on democracy — a staple of President Joe Biden’s personal makes an attempt to attract a distinction with Trump. As an alternative she aimed to make a broader case for why voters ought to reject Trump and take into account what she presents, whereas introducing herself to voters nonetheless clamoring for extra data and inspiring the gang to visualise their divergent futures hanging within the stability on Election Day.
“He has an enemies checklist of individuals he intends to prosecute,” Harris mentioned. “He says one in every of his highest priorities is to let out the violent extremists who assaulted these regulation enforcement officers on Jan. 6. Donald Trump intends to make use of the US army in opposition to Americans who merely disagree with him. Folks he calls ‘the enemy from inside.’ This isn’t a candidate for president who is considering methods to make your life higher.”
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Her speech drew a large crowd to Washington, with an overflow crowd spilling beneath the Washington Monument on the Nationwide Mall. Extra critically, her marketing campaign hopes the setting will assist be a focus for battleground state voters who stay on the fence about whom to vote for — or whether or not to vote in any respect.
Forward of Harris’ remarks, her marketing campaign organized a audio system checklist of strange People, slightly than the star energy that has been featured at a few of her current occasions, or the parade of elected officers usually in this system at Washington occasions. They included Amanda Zurawski, a girl who almost died from sepsis after being denied care beneath Texas’ strict abortion ban, and Craig Sicknick, the brother of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died within the wake of the Jan. 6 assault.
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Ruth Chiari, 78, of Charlottesville, Virginia, was attending the rally along with her husband to “assist democracy.”
“I believe everyone understands what’s on the poll,” she mentioned as she waited in line close to the Treasury constructing to enter the occasion. “We’re both going to have an autocrat or freedom.”
Kathleen Nicholas, 36, a authorities relations employee in Washington, remembered Jan. 6 and liked the distinction of the gang and environment to that day. “I like she selected this place for her closing,” she mentioned. “Having one thing that may be a direct distinction to that day is what we would have liked.”
With time working out and the race tight, Harris and Trump have each sought large moments to attempt to shift momentum their manner.
The deal with got here days after Harris travelled to Texas, a reliably Republican state, to look with megastar Beyonce and emphasize the results for ladies after the U.S. Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade. That, too, was a speech meant to register with voters far-off within the battleground states.
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The vice-president’s newest deal with has been within the works for weeks. However aides hoped her message would land with extra affect after Trump’s rally Sunday at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York, the place audio system hurled merciless and racist insults. Harris mentioned the occasion “highlighted the purpose that I’ve been making all through this marketing campaign.”
“He’s centered and truly fixated on his grievances, on himself and on dividing our nation,” she mentioned.
Harris sought to put out a practical and forward-looking plan for the nation, together with reminding voters about her financial proposals and pledging to work for entry to reproductive care, together with abortion.
“In contrast to Donald Trump, I don’t imagine individuals who disagree with me are the enemy,” Harris mentioned. “He desires to place them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at my desk. And I pledge to be a president for all People. To at all times put nation above celebration and above self.”
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Additionally central to her message: positioning herself as a “new technology” of chief after Trump and even her present boss, Biden.
“It doesn’t should be this fashion,” Harris mentioned. “We have now to cease pointing fingers and begin locking arms. It’s time to flip the web page on the drama and the battle and confusion.”
She acknowledged that “a lot of you’re nonetheless attending to know who I’m” after her shock elevation to the highest of the Democratic ticket after Biden dropped out of the race in July, and used her remarks to attempt to reply voters’ curiosity.
“I acknowledge this has not been a typical marketing campaign,” Harris mentioned, including that she is “not afraid of powerful fights in opposition to dangerous actors and highly effective pursuits.”
“I’ll be sincere with you: I’m not excellent,” she mentioned. “I make errors. However right here’s what I promise you: I’ll at all times take heed to you, even in case you don’t vote for me. I’ll at all times let you know the reality, even when it’s onerous to listen to. I’ll work every single day to construct consensus and attain compromise to get issues finished. And in case you give me the prospect to struggle in your behalf, there may be nothing on the earth that may stand in my manner.”
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Forward of Harris’ speech, Trump used remarks to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago membership in Florida on Tuesday morning to accuse Harris of closing with a message that doesn’t deal with on a regular basis People’ day-to-day struggles and kitchen-table issues.
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He mentioned Harris retains “speaking about Hitler, and Nazis, as a result of her document’s horrible,” a reference to Harris amplifying the warnings from his former chief of employees that Trump spoke admiringly of the Nazi chief whereas in workplace.
Harris’ aides, a lot of whom additionally suggested Biden’s marketing campaign earlier than he dropped out, nonetheless imagine that centring the race on who Trump is and the way she’s completely different will probably be their strongest message for voters.
“She’s already made her case, she’s offered the proof. She’s providing up a summation tonight, and she or he has religion within the knowledge of the jury,” marketing campaign communications director Michael Tyler mentioned.
Biden instructed reporters Tuesday that he won’t attend Harris’ speech as a result of the occasion is “for her,” however he deliberate to observe it on tv. Forward of Harris’ remarks, Biden is reacted to a comic book calling Puerto Rico rubbish at a Trump rally final weekend by saying, “The one rubbish I see floating out there may be his supporters.”
— Related Press writers Michelle L. Worth in Palm Seashore, Florida, Ayana Alexander in Baltimore, and Fatima Hussein, Chris Megerian, Dan Merica, Will Weissert, Colleen Lengthy and Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.
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