WASHINGTON: 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 sent her to the White House, in a speech billed as her campaign's closing argument.
"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.
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 US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Speaking from behind bulletproof screens next to blue signs saying "Freedom," she warned that the election was a choice between a "country rooted in freedom for every American, or ruled by chaos and division."
Harris reminded the crowd that Trump stood at the same spot nearly four years ago and "sent an armed mob" to the Capitol.
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 US 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.
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.
The Democrat soon switched to a recap of her detailed plans to help financially struggling middle-class Americans.
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.
Harris got one of the biggest cheers when she referred to Republicans seeking to curtail abortion, saying the government should not be "telling women what to do with their bodies."
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 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 towards 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's campaign claimed 75,000 people attended the rally. The number could not be immediately verified, but the crowd was unusually large in an election that has seen heavy enthusiasm on both sides.
Petty Tyrant
Harris had earlier referred to Trump as ‘unhinged’, ‘unstable’ and a 'fascist', but on Tuesday, she boiled down criticism of her Republican challenger 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.
"This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance and out for unchecked power," she said in the speech, exactly a week before Americans go to the polls in the most dramatic and divisive election of modern times.
Harris 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."
Harris then pivoted to an optimistic vision of the United States' future, using the setting of the White House lit up against the night behind her as a symbolic pitch to show that she is ready for the presidency.
"America, I am here tonight to say: That's not who we are," Harris told the huge crowd of flag-waving supporters.
"Each of you has the power to turn the page and start writing the next chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told."
Harris also addressed one of her main weaknesses—the fact that some voters still see her as a continuation of Biden, who dropped out of the White House race in July. "My presidency will be different because the challenges we face are different," she vowed.
Although there is still a week to go, the Harris campaign cast her speech as a "closing argument"—a nod to her career as a prosecutor.
"I think of this as a cleansing for what happened on January 6," said Mitzi Maxwell, 69, who came from Florida with her mother to see "all the love, passion, and excitement that she (Harris) has become known for."
Some Harris supporters queued for more than seven hours before the speech, whose sheer scale and energy were a direct challenge to Trump, a politician who has always boasted about his ability to draw crowds.
Harris and Trump remain in a dead heat in the polls, with both desperately trying to convince undecided voters in seven key swing states.
The Republican later rallied in blue-collar Allentown, in Pennsylvania, perhaps the most crucial of the seven battleground states that are expected to decide the election—and a city that is home to a large Puerto Rican community.
Fears of a repeat of the chaos from four years ago hang heavy over this year's election, with Trump repeatedly indicating that he might again refuse to accept the result if he loses.
(With inputs from The AP and AFP)