Kamala Harris contrasts herself with Trump in White House Ellipse speech

Kamala Harris drew a stark contrast with former President Donald Trump Tuesday in a speech billed as a closing message for her campaign on the same spot where Trump urged his followers to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“This election is more than just a choice between two parties and two different candidates,” she said at the start of her half-hour address. “It is a choice about whether we have a country rooted in freedom for every American or ruled by chaos and division.”
Just a week before Election Day, Harris took to the White House Ellipse to make a final pitch that she’ll improve life for everyday Americans while arguing that Trump is only focused on himself.
“Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other,” Harris said. “That is who he is. But America, I’m here tonight to say: That is not who we are.”
Harris referenced Trump’s recent comments about wielding the power of government against his political rivals, instead portraying herself as a leader who would begin her term with a “to-do list” rather than an “enemies list.” She said she would reach across the aisle to work with Republicans and solve national problems.
“I pledge to seek common ground and common sense solutions to make your lives better. I am not looking to score political points. I am looking to make progress,” she promised.
The location of the speech itself offered a dramatic jab at Trump, who used his speech there on Jan. 6 to whip up a crowd of his extremist supporters to try to overturn his 2020 loss to President Biden.
Harris did not shy away from addressing Trump’s actions that day.
“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,” she said.
Ahead of her remarks on Tuesday, the Harris campaign said the backdrop was picked to help voters “crystalize the choice in this election.”
“(It’s) a stark visualization of probably the most infamous example of Donald Trump and how he’s used his power for bad,” campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon told reporters in a preview of the speech.
Campaign aides also insisted the speech wouldn’t be a Biden-style call for American voters to save democracy by voting against Trump. The Democratic nominee instead made a broader pitch for voters to hand her a mandate to “turn the page” on Trump’s 12 tumultuous years in the political spotlight.
“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy,” Harris said. “I’ll give them a seat at my table. And I pledge to be a president for all Americans. To always put country above party and above self.”
Harris described her leadership style as “a drive to hold accountable those who use their wealth or power to take advantage of other people, the drive to protect hard-working Americans who aren’t always seen or heard and deserve a voice.”
“I will tell you that is the kind of president I will be,” she said.
She laid out a pragmatic and forward-looking plan for the country, including reminding voters about her economic proposals, such as a ban on price-gouging of groceries. She pledged to “restore” the abortion rights that “Donald Trump and his hand-selected Supreme Court justices took away from the women of America” — a popular issue driving Democrats to the polls.
Harris also exploited the still-spreading outrage over the racist jokes about Latinos and others at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, which included a comedian who derided Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
“He is focused and actually fixated on his grievances, on himself and on dividing our country,” Harris said.
In contrast, she said she has spent her life “fighting for the people who have been hurt and counted out, but never stopped believing that in our country anything is possible.”
“Let us fight for this beautiful country that we love,” she said in her conclusion. “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.”
The speech drew a massive crowd to Washington, estimated at around 75,000 people. The overflowing throng stretched all the way back near the Washington Monument on the National Mall.
It surely drew comparisons to the angry Jan. 6 rally that Trump now praises as a “day of love” and one of the biggest crowds he’s ever seen. That rally was estimated to have been attended by roughly 53,000 people.
Trump delivered a speech of his own Tuesday evening in Allentown, Pa., in the heart of the swingy Lehigh Valley that could help determine the winner of the most hotly contested battleground state.
Even though Allentown has a large Puerto Rican community, Trump has refused to apologize for the ugly rhetoric at his MSG rally.
The speeches came as polls say Trump and Harris remain locked in a dead-heat race.
Harris leads most surveys of the national popular vote but it’s a photo finish in the seven battleground states that will likely determine the winner of the White House.