Rallying on the Ellipse, Harris asks voters to reject Trump’s ‘chaos and division’ • Kansas Reflector

WASHINGTON – With the White House as a backdrop, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris delivered what she called her closing argument Tuesday night, urging voters to support her bid over “unstable” Republican nominee Donald Trump.

The 30-minute speech at the Ellipse was the same place Trump, then president, held a rally nearly four years ago before his supporters stormed the US Capitol. Harris emphasized the Democrats’ core argument that another term for the former president would pose a threat to the country’s future.

“This election is more than a choice between two parties and two different candidates,” Harris said. “It’s a choice whether we have a country rooted in freedom for every American or ruled by chaos and division.”

Harris evoked the conception of the United States as “born when we took away the liberty of a petty tyrant.” She said since then, Americans across generations have fought to protect those freedoms and expand them, from those who marched in the civil rights movement to the troops who stormed the beaches of Normandy.

“They didn’t do this just to watch us bend to the will of another petty tyrant,” she said. “We are not a vessel for the schemes of would-be dictators.”

Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, said in a statement that Trump’s “closing argument to the American people is simple: Kamala broke it; he will fix it.”

Among the crowd of tens of thousands at the rally was LaShaun Martin, 52, of Prince George’s County, Maryland, who said he was voting for Harris because the vice president is “incredibly positive.”

“She was for all the people, Republicans and Democrats,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what walk of life you come from. She really wants to represent you and whatever you need to be a successful person.”

One week until election day

Harris’ speech came just a week before voting closes on November 5, following a historic campaign that began when President Joe Biden has withdrawn from the race following a disastrous debate this summer.

Biden’s endorsement of Harris and widespread support from Democrats across the country forced the GOP to overhaul its approach to the campaign as Democrats shifted their focus from policies Biden wanted to support to those important to Harris.

In his remarks, Harris chastised Trump and his supporters for their disparaging comments about immigrants living in the country illegally, a staple of his campaign.

“Politicians need to stop treating immigration as an issue to scare the vote,” Harris said. “And instead we treat it as a serious challenge that we must finally solve together.”

Harris pledged to work with Congress on immigration policy, as well as a path to citizenship for farmworkers and the more than 500,000 children brought into the country without authorization. They are known as Dreamers, enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Harris touched on several of his top policy issues, including housing affordability, nationwide abortion access, banning grocery store price gouging and expanding the child tax credit.

Reaching out to the undecided

Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler he anticipated the speech early Tuesdaytelling reporters that the vice president will speak directly to undecided voters’ “sense of frustration,” their sense of exhaustion with the way our politics have played out in the Trump era — and give them a direct vision that something is different, that something is different. it is possible.”

Trump appeared on Sunday at a six-hour campaign event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, which brought bipartisan condemnation of a comedian who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash in the middle of the ocean.”

Ahead of Tuesday’s speech by Harris, Trump he made remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, accusing her of trying to divide the country and trying to distance herself from racist and vulgar remarks made by the comedian and other speakers during the rally.

Trump did not take questions but told ABC News earlier in the day that he had not heard the comedian’s remarks.

“I don’t know him,” Trump said. “Someone put it up there.”

With the presidential race essentially tied, Harris and Trump both focused their final campaign on the crucial swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Harris promised the crowd during her speech that, if elected, she would protect the democratic institutions and ideals that underpin American law. She also criticized Trump’s comments, referring to Democrats as “the enemy within.”

“Just because someone disagrees with us doesn’t make them the enemy within,” Harris said. “They are family, neighbors, classmates, coworkers, they are fellow Americans, and as Americans we rise and fall together.”

Time to “turn the page”

Harris said the country must move beyond the widening polarization that he described as a hallmark of Trump’s hold on American politics.

“Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other,” Harris said. “That’s the way he is.”

In her pitch to undecided voters, Harris offered an opportunity to leave the Trump era behind.

“It’s time to turn the page on drama and conflict, fear and division,” she said. “It is time for a new generation of leadership in America, and I am ready to provide that leadership as the next President of the United States.”

That leadership, she said, would seek to build on bipartisan work.

“I am committed to finding common ground and common sense solutions to make your life better. I’m not looking to make political points. I’m looking to make progress,” she said. “I am committed to listening to experts, those who will be affected by the decisions I make, and those who disagree with me. Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t think people who disagree with me are the enemy.”

During her speech, protesters called for an arms embargo on US military weapons sent to Israel amid the war with Hamas. Several senators have also called for an arms embargo.

“Stop arming Israel. Arms embargo now,” one protester said before being escorted out.

The death toll over 43,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to health authorities there, it fractured Muslims, Arab-Americans and anti-war Democrats within the party. It spurred the National Non-Employed Movement which sent 30 delegates to the Democratic National Convention this summer.

After Harris’ speech, nearly 100 pro-Palestinian protesters surrounded an exit of the campaign rally.

Harris supporters are rallying

The campaign finale in Washington, DC was expected to draw more than 50,000 supporters, according to the local NBC affiliate. The Harris campaign estimate 75,000 spectators showed up.

It featured speeches from advocates such as a mother who was able to access affordable insulin for her son because of the Affordable Care Act; a farmer couple from Pennsylvania who were previously Trump voters; and Craig Sicknick, brother of US Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died in the insurrection at the US Capitol.

“(Trump) incited the crowd to riot while my brother and his fellow officers put their lives on the line,” said Craig Sicknick. “Now Mr. Trump is promising to pardon the convicted criminals who attacked our Capitol, killing my brother and injuring over 140 other officers. This is simply wrong.”

The Justice Department charged over 1,500 defendants in the January 6 attack.

Craig Sicknick endorsed Harris, who he called “a true leader.”

Family farmers Bob and Kristina Lange of Malvern, Pa., said they are lifelong Republicans but will vote for Harris in this election.

“It’s very clear that Donald Trump doesn’t care about helping hardworking people like us,” said Bob Lange. “He’s too focused on seeking vengeance and revenge to care about what we need. We deserve better.”

The couple was featured in more digital ads targeting rural Pennsylvania voters.

History and excitement

Attendees from Illinois to local residents made the trek to the Ellipse for the speech.

Tiffany Norwood, 56, of Washington, DC, said she attended the rally with her 87-year-old mother, Mary Ann Norwood, for “the history, the emotion.”

“I feel like we need something different in the United States and she is,” said Tiffany Norwood, who identified herself as an entrepreneur. “Her plan for the economy, for the future, for women, for everyone. I like that it’s a big umbrella that includes the melting of the United States.”

Some participants were not old enough to vote, such as 13-year-old Grace Ledford of Champaign, Illinois.

The teenager said her first political rally felt “like a big party”.

“Kamala would be a great president because, first of all, she’s a woman and she’s African-American,” she said. “A lot of male presidents don’t know how hard it is to be a woman, especially Trump.”

Daniel Nyquist, 79, of Rockville, Maryland, stood in the crowd wearing a hat emblazoned with the words “Make America Less Hateful.”

“It’s the alternative to Trump’s theme,” Nyquist said, pointing to his hat. “He’s a big promoter of hate, and this is to counter that.”