4 takeaways from Harris's 'closing argument address' at the Ellipse
With just one week to go until Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered on Tuesday what her campaign called a “closing argument address” from the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., in which she pledged to “always put country above party and above self.”
While Donald Trump rallied supporters Tuesday night in Allentown, Pa., the setting for Harris’s speech carried its own message. It was in the same spot where on Jan. 6, 2021, then President Donald Trump exhorted his followers to “fight like hell” and march to the Capitol building to protest the congressional certification of his Electoral College loss in 2020 to Joe Biden. A deadly riot ensued, with Trump watching the mayhem from the White House, that delayed the proceedings by several hours before Biden was officially confirmed as the 46th U.S. president.
With national and swing state polls showing Harris and Trump in a virtual dead heat, the vice president’s rally drew a massive crowd, estimated at 75,000 people, that filled the Ellipse and overflowed onto the National Mall. Here are the key takeaways from her speech.
Harris frames ‘the choice’
With sirens and car alarms wailing in the background in an apparent act of protest, Harris began by framing the election as “a choice about whether we have a country rooted in freedom for every American or ruled by chaos and division.”
“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, an election that he knew he lost,” Harris said.
“He has an enemies list of people he intends to prosecute,” she added. “He says one of his highest priorities is to set free the violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers on Jan. 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.’ America, this is not a candidate for president who is thinking about how to make your life better. This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance and out for unchecked power.”
Telling her audience “that is not who we are,” Harris then espoused her own belief that the Latin phrase printed on U.S. currency, “E pluribus unum,” which translates to “out of many, one,” is “a living truth about the heart of our nation.”
“The fact that someone does not agree with us does not make them ‘the enemy within,’” she said, adding, “As Americans, we rise and fall together.”
Harris then portrayed her candidacy as a way 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 and I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States of America.”
Later in her speech she pledged “to be a president for all Americans. To always put country above party and above self.”
Still introducing herself to voters
Harris acknowledged that “this has not been a typical campaign.” Her entry into the race came just three months ago, after concerns about Biden’s age prompted Democrats to try to convince him to exit the race. In the sprint that has followed, Harris has sometimes struggled to introduce herself to voters, “even though I’ve had the honor of serving as your vice president for the last four years,” she said Tuesday, adding, “But I know that many of you are still getting to know who I am.”
Harris then touted her work experience outside of Washington, mostly as the state of California’s attorney general, saying she has “always had an instinct to protect.”
“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 is difficult to hear. I will work every day to reach consensus and reach compromise to get things done,” she said in her pitch to voters.
“On day one, if elected, Donald Trump would walk into that office with an enemies list,” Harris said. “When elected, I will walk in with a to-do list.”
Abortion rights
Harris rarely misses an opportunity to proclaim her intention of working to restore the right for women to receive an abortion nationwide, and she reiterated Tuesday that in the wake of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade “one in three women in American lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban, many with no exceptions for rape and incest.”
“Trump’s not done. He would ban abortion nationwide,” Harris said, “restrict access to birth control and put IVF treatments at risk and force states to monitor womens’ pregnancies.”
Trump, however, has made no such pledges.
Harris did acknowledge that in order to restore abortion protections, she would need the support of Congress.
“When Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide, as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law,” she said.
‘Pathway to citizenship’ for some immigrants
Harris again promised that, if elected, she would sign a bipartisan border security bill — a bill that was torpedoed by Trump earlier this year — into law.
Saying she would “give border patrol the support that they so desperately need,” Harris added, “At the same time, we must acknowledge that we are a nation of immigrants, and I will work with Congress to pass immigration reform, including an earned path to citizenship for hard-working immigrants like farm workers and our Dreamers.”
Many Republicans oppose offering a path to citizenship. Trump has also promised the largest deportation of immigrants to the U.S. in the country’s history.