Vice President Kamala Harris pivoted to a message of unity in her closing argument to the nation on Tuesday night, after having spent the last weeks of her campaign insisting that her opponent is a fascist whose election poses an existential threat to the future of the nation.
Addressing a crowd of supporters from the Ellipse in downtown Washington, D.C. — the same spot where Trump, on January 6, 2021, infamously urged his followers to march on the Capitol — Harris cited the Capitol riot as the primary example of her opponent’s unfitness for office.
“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,” Harris said before a crowd her campaign estimated at 75,000 supporters.
“Donald Trump has told us his priorities for a second term. He has an enemies list of people he intends to prosecute. He says one of his highest priorities is to set free the violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers on January 6th,” Harris added. She also accused Trump of seeking to use the military against his enemies.
Trump has referred to the imprisoned Capitol rioters as “hostages” and has promised to free them immediately. Some of Trump’s most passionate supporters routinely argue that the January 6 rioters are “political” prisoners targeted by a weaponized Biden Justice Department.
More than 1,500 individuals have faced federal charges in the 45 months following the Capitol riot, according to the Justice Department. Almost 1,000 individuals have entered guilty pleas, and 304 of the defendants have done so for felony offenses. Another 195 defendants have been found guilty at trial.
Harris coupled her description of Trump as a “petty tyrant” whose election would spell doom for the country with an appeal to unity and a pledge to seek consensus with those who disagree with her. She touted the America capacity for intellectual debate and said those who disagree are “fellow Americans” rather than enemies to fight.
In the closing weeks of the campaign, Harris has leaned into the charge that Trump is a “fascist,” going so far as to hold a rare press conference outside of her Naval Observatory residence to warn reporters about her “increasingly unhinged and unstable” opponent. During the brief address, Harris cited recently reported comments made by Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, General John Kelly, who called Trump a “fascist” and said that Trump had praised Hitler in private conversation. Harris’s running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, has compared Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally last weekend to a Nazi rally that took place there in 1939.
Catering to moderates and swing-state voters, Harris attempted to distance herself from the intensity and divisiveness that have characterized American politics for the better part of a decade.
“It doesn’t have to be this way. It is time to stop pointing fingers. We have to stop pointing fingers and start locking arms. It is time to turn the page on the drama and the conflict, the fear and division. It is time for a new generation of leadership in America,” Harris said.
She identified herself as being part of a “new generation” of leaders and touted her prosecutorial record against banks and sexual predators.
“My presidency will be different,” Harris said, as she listed a new set of challenges facing the country. She has struggled to differentiate herself from President Biden and repeatedly failed to articulate what she would do differently.
“America, we know what Donald Trump has in mind. More chaos. More division. And policies that help those at the very top and hurt everyone else. I offer a different path. And I ask for your vote,” Harris continued.
“I pledge to listen to experts. To those who will be impacted by the decisions I make. And to people who disagree with me. Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. He wants to put them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at my table.”
Harris’s anti-Trump rhetoric resembles that of Joe Biden’s victorious presidential campaign against Trump four years ago. Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign has sought to make the election about the Biden administration’s record and Harris’s history of radical policy positions.
At other points in her speech, Harris focused on her economic policy proposals and unwavering pro-abortion stance, an issue Democrats are seizing on this election cycle. On abortion, Harris has not named any restrictions she might support and has simply asserted that Roe v. Wade must be restored. She blamed Trump for red-state abortion restrictions and claimed that Trump would ban abortion nationwide, a position Trump has not taken on the campaign trail.
Harris’s stated economic policies, meanwhile, largely consist of government intervention to combat “price-gouging” and a mixture of taxes and subsidies geared toward increasing the supply of housing and promoting green technology. Many economists have strongly criticized Harris’s planned crackdown on “price-gouging,” and some have equated it to the failed price controls implemented under President Nixon during the 1970s. She has also professed support for cutting working-class taxes and capping the price of insulin.
On the economy, Americans consistently give Trump higher ratings than Harris, based on America’s economic performance during the three years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic when Trump held the presidency.
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