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Kamala Harris urges voters to turn away from Trump in her DC address

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WASHINGTON — With the White House lit up behind her, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris made a plea Tuesday night to undecided voters to “turn the tide” on Donald Trump as she sought to preserve the legacy of the Republican's Jan. 6 Ellipse to rewrite speech that preceded an insurrection at the US Capitol.

Harris' address touched at times on the optimistic approach she said she would bring to the presidency. The Democratic presidential candidate turned against Trump and also criticized her Republican opponent for causing a ruckus in the White House.

“For too long, America has been characterized by too much division, chaos and mutual distrust. Then it’s easy to forget a simple truth: It doesn’t have to be this way,” Harris said. “We need to stop pointing fingers and instead start closing arms. It’s time to leave the drama and the conflict, the fear and the division behind.”

She told a crowd that her campaign estimated at 75,000: “It’s time for a new generation of leaders in America. And I’m ready to offer that leadership.”

With just a week until Election Day on Nov. 5, Harris and Trump traded insults as they crisscrossed the country trying to drum up support in a statistically tied race. The two politicians have made final efforts to appeal to disinterested voters by holding large, attention-grabbing events, such as the controversial rally Trump held at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night and Harris' speech at the Ellipse on Tuesday night.

Throughout the campaign, Trump blamed Harris for inflation and high prices across the country. He also criticized the incumbent Democratic vice president over the Biden administration's immigration policies, saying she is responsible for the surge in migrants coming to the United States.

In a statement prepared on Tuesday, the Trump campaign criticized Harris' speech for its “dark, angry and negative message, marked by her sheer desperation.”

“As Kamala pushes division, President Trump is focused on the issues that matter to voters – restoring the economy, securing the border, protecting Americans’ freedoms and restoring America’s strength around the world,” it said it in the Trump campaign.

Harris' comments were aimed primarily at Americans watching at home who may not be planning to vote. She also acknowledged in her speech that many of the rally participants had probably already cast their votes.

For those who haven't, she said: “We know who Donald Trump is, he is the person who stood in this very spot almost four years ago and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol, for that matter.” of the people.” a free and fair election that he knew he had lost.

She said she would take a different path than Trump or President Joe Biden if elected on Nov. 5.

“My presidency will be different because the challenges we face are different,” she said, adding that she and Biden focused on ending the pandemic and containing the economy four years ago. “Our biggest challenge now is to reduce costs, which were already rising before the pandemic and are still too high.”

The vice president was repeatedly asked how she would differ from the current administration but was hesitant to draw a contrast between her and Biden.

Harris was committed to working with all Americans and made proposals to lower costs for Americans, including a federal ban on price gouging, capping insulin prices and supporting first-time home buyers.

A week before Election Day, Harris also admitted that she is still introducing herself to voters who may not know who she is.

While Harris promised in her speech to take the United States in a new direction if elected, Biden's comments early Tuesday took the spotlight away from his vice president.

Addressing a comedian's racist comments at Trump's rally on Sunday that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of trash,” Biden said during a virtual event with Voto Latino: “The only trash I see floating out there is that of his supporters – his – his “Demonization of Latinos is unreasonable and un-American,” reads a transcript released by the White House.

Biden's comments sparked immediate backlash from Republican lawmakers and from Trump, who held a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday evening to coincide with Harris' event. Trump said Biden's comments were “horrible” and compared them to those made by Hillary Clinton, who some of his supporters called “deplorable” during the 2016 presidential campaign, which he won.

Biden later wrote in a post

“Retaking” the Ellipse of January 6th

Before her speech, thousands of Harris supporters waited in a line that snaked up and down 15th Street in Washington DC from the National Mall to Pennsylvania Avenue.

Street vendors walked up and down the crowd, selling T-shirts, buttons and other gear to support the Democratic candidate. Music filled the air as a babble of voices waited to be released onto the Ellipse. Many attendees wore clothing supporting Harris' candidacy, while others wore T-shirts that read “Vote” and “Black Lives Matter.” Some attendees were dressed as Harris' signature shoe: Converse.

During the event, a DJ played songs such as Taylor Swift's “Shake It Off” and Jennifer Lopez's “Let's Get Loud” – both artists have supported the vice president. The DJ also played a Trump campaign classic, the Village People's YMCA

Volunteers handed out a variety of snacks including cotton candy, pop tarts and fruit snacks. At the end of the night, volunteers handed out a surplus of cotton candy.

Daraja Carroll, 28, lives just a few blocks from the White House and rode her scooter to the event with her friend Sharlie Goodson, 29. Like Harris, Carroll is from California – the same place where Harris first served as district attorney in San Francisco. And like Harris, Carroll dreams of one day becoming attorney general.

“I just couldn’t sit on my couch,” she said. “I am a black lawyer. I am a descendant of enslaved people. I am a history buff who knows my family's history… There are so many reasons why I came today to support them. I felt like I couldn’t sit at home.”

Four years ago, Carroll attended a block party at St. John's Lafayette Square church — the same location Trump vacated during a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020 after Biden defeated Trump. Carroll said at the time that they would take back that space.

Now Harris is reclaiming the Ellipse, she said.

“Because as much as you disrespect Black history in the city, here we are reclaiming it,” she said. “To be in D.C. the way the slaves built this, and therefore to stand on this stage in front of these buildings that were built by my ancestors and disrespected by these racist white people, it is special. We have to take it back.”

Tosha Taylor of Hughesville, Maryland, said Harris' rally was a “clear contrast” to the Trump rally Americans experienced four years ago. Taylor, an Air Force and Army veteran, said Harris' event was “full of solidarity and love of country and true patriotism.”

But Trump's Jan. 6 rally was “full of hate,” Taylor said.

“This is completely different,” said the 53-year-old. “Put the two pictures next to each other. They see solidarity, happiness and joy and pro-country. The other is anti-national and trying to overthrow your government. It was full of hatred and violence and all sorts of crazy things and wannabe patriots.”

Suzy Wagner and her husband, Eric, said they believe Harris has nailed the reason why voters should support her.

“Everything he came out with was the opposite of what he said and the scaremongering he put out there,” said Suzy Wagner, 54, of Arlington, Virginia. “We’re just over it.”

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