WASHINGTON (AP) — Kamala Harris on Tuesday sought to remind Americans what life was like under Donald Trump and then offered voters a different path forward if they send her to the White House, in a speech billed as her campaign's closing argument.
Click here to watch the full address
“I will always listen to you, even if you don’t vote for me,” she said, speaking before a massive crowd that spilled from the grassy Ellipse near the White House to the Washington Monument.
Some key moments from her half-hour speech:
The location of the speech reinforced her message
Harris chose to speak from the Ellipse on purpose. It's the same spot in Washington where Republican Donald Trump helped incite a mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. But the vice president didn't devote much of her speech to the violence of that day, instead using the field between Constitution Avenue and the White House more as a backdrop — a quiet reminder of the different choices Americans face.
“Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other," she said, adding that he wants back into the White House “not to focus on your problems, but to focus on his.”
Kamala Harris, the prosecutor, argued her case
Harris spent years working as a prosecutor. She was California's attorney general before she became a U.S. senator. And she often says on the campaign trail that she's only ever had one client — the people. In her speech, she talked about her past work taking on scammers, violent offenders who abused women and children, and cartels that trafficked in guns and human beings.
She said she'd bring with her to the White House an instinct to protect.
“There’s something about people being treated unfairly, or overlooked, that just gets to me," she said.
It's me, Hi. I'm the presidential nominee. It's me.
One week before the election, Harris allowed that “I know many of you are still getting to know who I am.”
The Democratic nominee has been running for only three months in a compressed campaign launched after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. Harris still is confronting voters who say they want to learn more about her and how she will govern. So she spent some time Tuesday talking about her career, her goals and background.
“I’ll be honest with you: I’m not perfect. I make mistakes. But here’s what I promise you: I will always listen to you, even if you don’t vote for me."
To-do list for Day One at the White House
Harris devoted a good chunk of her speech to talking about policies she'd enact if she were to win the White House, including helping first-time homeowners with down payments and aiding the so-called “sandwich generation" of adults who are caring for young children and older parents by allowing elder care to be funded by Medicare. She said she'd work to pass a bipartisan border security bill that tanked last year after Trump encouraged congressional Republicans to let it die.
And she said she would work to bring back abortion protections. “I will fight to restore what Donald Trump and his hand-selected Supreme Court justice took away from the women of America,” Harris said. The Supreme Court, with three Trump-appointed justices, overturned federal protections of abortion in 2022. Abortion has since become one of the most motivating issues for the Democratic base in the 2024 election.
“On Day One, if elected, Donald Trump would walk into that office with an enemies list,” she said. “When elected, I will walk in with a to-do list.”
Size matters on the campaign trail — especially to Trump
The Ellipse is a grassy expanse between the White House and the Washington Monument that has long played host to political events and national traditions like the annual holiday tree lighting. On Tuesday, the space was packed. Crowds spilled onto the National Mall back toward the Washington Monument, where giant screens and speakers were set up for people to hear and see from afar.
The cheers of the boisterous crowd could be heard from the White House driveway. Harris' campaign said it was her biggest rally to date. She's already packed stadiums and other venues with supporters during her rallies. Harris loves to needle Trump about crowd size — a particular preoccupation for the Republican leader, who claimed the campaign had to bus people in Tuesday to fill the space.
Harris has called Trump ‘unhinged’ and ‘unstable.’ Now she's adding ‘petty tyrant’
Harris boiled down criticism of Trump into two words: "petty tyrant."
She warned Trump is a man governed by grievances, one who would focus on himself and his “enemies list” when he got into the White House. She harked back to the nation's founding when Americans fought for freedom, then sped through decades of hard-fought civil rights battles.
“They did not struggle, sacrifice and lay down their lives only to see us cede our fundamental freedoms. They didn't do that only to see us submit to the will of another petty tyrant," she said. "These United States of America, we are not a vessel for the schemes of wannabe dictators.”
Meanwhile, a Biden complication emerges
Just moments before Harris was to speak, Biden was on a campaign call reacting to a comic who called Puerto Rico garbage during a Trump rally last weekend. The president said, "The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
He’d joined a national call organized by the advocacy group Voto Latino. Biden urged those on the call to “vote to keep Donald Trump out of the White House," adding, “He’s a true danger to not just Latinos but to all people."
Biden's remarks were quicky seized on by Republicans who said he was denigrating Trump supporters, a distraction for Harris when she is trying to reach out to GOP voters.
Biden quickly sent out a social media post seeking to clarify his remarks.
“His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable," Biden said of Trump. “That’s all I meant to say.”
There's still plenty to come after what Harris called her ‘closing argument’
The event was framed as a campaign finale meant to lay out in stark terms the choice for voters next week. But it's far from Harris' last campaign event. She'll be hitting all the key battleground states as she makes her last pitch to voters.
She will headline events in Wisconsin, North Carolina and Pennsylvania on Wednesday, and on Thursday she will have rallies in Arizona and Nevada. More events are expected before Election Day.
The campaign is looking to pick up voters across many different demographics in the hope that a swing vote here and there may add up to a win in a razor's-edge race with Trump.
One week out from Election Day, the vice president used the address from the grassy Ellipse near the White House to pledge to Americans that she would work to improve their lives while arguing that her Republican opponent is only in it for himself.
Harris: ‘World leaders think Trump is an easy mark’
Harris attacked Trump’s competency on the international stage Tuesday, using her closing argument speech to question the former President’s ability to stand up to world leaders.
“World leaders think Trump is an easy mark,” Harris said, arguing that leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are “rooting for” Trump in this election.
Harris pledges to ‘restore’ abortion rights
Harris pledged to “restore” the abortion rights that were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I will fight to restore what Donald Trump and his hand-selected Supreme Court justices took away from the women of America,” Harris said.
The Supreme Court, with three Trump appointees, overturned federal protections of abortion in 2022. Abortion has since become one of the most motivating issues for the Democratic base in the 2024 election.
Harris said later in the speech that she would “proudly” sign a bill protecting abortion rights if Congress were to send her one as president.
Harris both distances herself and embraces Joe Biden in closing argument speech
Harris, speaking in front of the White House, both distanced herself from President Joe Biden and embraced her one-time running mate.
Harris said she has been honored to serve with Biden but she said she “will bring my own experiences and ideas to the Oval Office.”
“My presidency will be different because the challenges we face will be different,” Harris said.
Biden was in the White House behind Harris while she delivered her speech. Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee when Biden opted not to run for reelection in July.
Harris takes one last opportunity to introduce herself to voters
Harris acknowledged one of the clearest critiques of her campaign on Tuesday, telling the audience that she understands “many of you are still getting to know who I am.”
Harris did not become the presumptive Democratic nominee for president until the summer, weeks after President Joe Biden decided not to run for reelection. That decision compressed the campaign timeline, denying Harris the months — and sometimes years — candidates usually have to introduce themselves to voters.
“I recognize this has not been a typical campaign,” Harris said, adding that she is “not afraid of tough fights against bad actors and powerful interests.”
“I will work every day to build consensus and reach compromise to get things done,” she said.
‘Our democracy doesn’t require us to agree on everything’
Harris deliberately tried to win over Republicans and former Trump supporters, telling the audience in Washington that “our democracy doesn’t require us to agree on everything.”
“Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other,” she said. “That is who he is. But America, I am hear to tonight to say, that is not who we are.”
She added: “The fact that someone disagrees with us does not make us the enemy within.”
Harris closes her speech with a final appeal to voters
Vice President Kamala Harris urged voters Tuesday to “start writing the next chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told” by rejecting former President Donald Trump.
Harris used the finale to her closing argument speech in Washington, D.C. to say voters are “not a vessel for the schemes of wannabe dictators.”
“The United States of America is the greatest idea humanity ever devised,” Harris said. “In seven days, we have the power, each of you has the power, to turn the page, and start writing the next chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told,” she added.
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