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WASHINGTON (AP) — Kamala Harris stood before an overflowing crowd near the White House on Tuesday and promised Americans she would fight for them every day as she urged voters to reject Donald Trump’s efforts to sow division and fear, declaring, “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
One week out from Election Day, the vice president tried to drive home the contrast with Trump by delivering her closing argument from the same spot on the grassy Ellipse where the Republican former president had fomented the Capitol insurrection in 2021, pledging that she would work to improve people's lives while arguing that her Republican opponent is only in it for himself.
“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. I will work every day to build consensus and reach compromise to get things done. And if you give me the chance to fight on your behalf, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way.”
Harris began her capstone speech by reminding voters of Trump's role in the chaos of Jan. 6, 2021, when he spewed falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election that inspired a crowd to march to the Capitol and try unsuccessfully to halt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's victory. She brought up his threats to use the military against his political rivals and his labeling of those who disagree with him as “the enemy from within.”
“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. 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.”
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.”
Harris sought to use her largest remaining stage before polls close to make a broader case for why voters should reject Trump and consider what she offers, while still introducing herself to voters clamoring for more information.
The White House gleaming behind her, Harris encouraged the crowd to visualize their divergent futures depending on who wins on Election Day.
“In less than 90 days, either Donald Trump or I will be in the Oval Office,” she said. “On Day One, if elected, Donald Trump would walk into that office with an enemies list. When elected, I will walk in with a to-do list.”
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.
Her speech drew a massive crowd to Washington, with supporters spilling out toward the Washington Monument on the National Mall. More critically, her campaign hopes the setting will help catch the attention of battleground state voters who remain on the fence about whom to vote for — or whether to vote at all.
Ahead of Harris' remarks, her campaign showcased a line-up of ordinary Americans who spoke about their dream and priorities, rather than showcasing the star power that has been featured at some recent Harris events. They included Amanda Zurawski, a woman who nearly died from sepsis after being denied care under Texas' strict abortion ban, Craig Sicknick, the brother of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack, and a Pennsylvania husband and wife who previously vote for Trump but now back Harris.
Ruth Chiari, 78, of Charlottesville, Virginia, said she attended the rally with her husband to “support democracy.”
“I think everybody understands what’s on the ballot,” she said as she waited in line to enter the event. “We’re either going to have an autocrat or freedom.”
Kathleen Nicholas, 36, a government relations worker in Washington, remembered Jan. 6 and loved the contrast of Tuesday's crowd and atmosphere with that day. “I like she chose this place for her closing,” she said. “Having something that is a direct contrast to that day is what we needed.”
With time running out and the race tight, Harris and Trump have both sought big moments to try to shift momentum their way.
The address came days after Harris traveled to Texas, a reliably Republican state, to appear with megastar Beyoncé and emphasize the consequences for women after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. That, too, was a speech meant to register with voters far away in the battleground states.
The vice president’s latest address has been in the works for weeks. But aides hoped her message would land with more impact after Trump’s rally Sunday at Madison Square Garden in New York, where speakers hurled cruel and racist insults.
“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy,” Harris said. “He wants to put them in jail. 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."
Also central to her message: positioning herself as a “new generation” of leader after Trump and even her current boss, President Joe Biden.
“It is time to stop pointing fingers and start locking arms," she said. "It is time to turn the page on the drama and 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.”
She acknowledged that “many of you are still getting to know who I am" after her surprise elevation to the top of the Democratic ticket after Biden dropped out of the race in July, and used her remarks to try to answer voters' curiosity.
“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.”
Ahead of Harris’ speech, Trump used remarks to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Tuesday morning to accuse Harris of closing with a message that doesn’t address everyday Americans’ day-to-day struggles and kitchen-table concerns.
He said 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.
Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “His closing argument to the American people is simple: Kamala broke it; he will fix it.”
Biden told reporters Tuesday that he would not attend Harris’ speech because the event is “for her,” but he sparked a firestorm ahead of Harris’ remarks. Reacting to a comic calling Puerto Rico garbage at a Trump rally last weekend, Biden said, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
With Republicans amplifying his comments seemingly denigrating Trump supporters, Biden sought to clarify them in a post on X. “Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage — which is the only word I can think of to describe it. 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.”
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Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in Palm Beach, Florida, Ayanna Alexander in Baltimore, and Fatima Hussein, Chris Megerian, Dan Merica, Will Weissert, Colleen Long and Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.