Kamala Harris urged a large rally near the White House to reject Donald Trump’s fear and division one week from polling day, saying: “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
Speaking in a closing pitch to voters from the same spot where Trump dispatched supporters to march on to the US Capitol during the January 6, 2021 insurrection, Ms Harris argued her Republican challenger did not care about the lives of ordinary Americans.
Reminding voters of Trump’s role in that insurrection in a bid to overthrow the result of the last election, she brought up his threats to use the military against his political rivals and his labelling of those who disagree with him as “the enemy from within.”
“Look, we know who Donald Trump is,” she said.
“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.
Trump, she added, “has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other.”
“This is not a candidate for president who is thinking about how to make your life better,” she said, branding Trump a “petty tyrant” and “wannabe dictator.”
Ms Harris continued: “But America, I am here tonight to say: That’s not who we are.” She added, “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
The incumbent Vice President, who polls suggest faces a tight race in key battleground states to secure the White House, pledged to “work every day to build consensus and reach compromise” if elected on November 5.
“I’ll be honest with you: I’m not perfect,” she said. “I make mistakes. But 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’s hard to hear.”
Ms Harris went on to list key policy goals, including expanding Medicare coverage of home health care, boosting the supply of housing in the country and working to restore nationwide access to abortion.
The speech drew a massive crowd to Washington, with supporters spilling out toward the Washington Monument on the National Mall.
The demo showcased a line-up of ordinary Americans who spoke about their priorities, om contrast to the celebrity appearances at earlier rallies.
Among them was Amanda Zurawski, a woman who nearly died from sepsis after being denied care under Texas’ strict abortion ban, and Craig Sicknick, the brother of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died in the wake of the January 6 attack.
Ahead of the speech, Trump used a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to accuse Harris of closing with a message that doesn’t address everyday Americans’ day-to-day struggles.
He said Ms Harris keeps “talking about Hitler, and Nazis, because her record’s horrible,” a reference to Harris amplifying the warnings from his former chief of staff that Trump spoke admiringly of the Nazi leader while in office.
US president Joe Biden did not attend the rally, but reacting to a comic calling Puerto Rico garbage at a Trump rally last weekend, he said: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
After Republicans accused him of denigrating voters, Mr Biden clarified in a post on X: “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.”
