|
Harris Reaches for Big Moment in Speech10/29 06:19
Vice President Kamala Harris will pledge to Americans that she'll work to
improve their lives while Republican Donald Trump is only in it for himself as
she delivers her campaign's closing argument Tuesday from the same site where
the former president fomented the Capitol insurrection in 2021.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President Kamala Harris will pledge to Americans
that she'll work to improve their lives while Republican Donald Trump is only
in it for himself as she delivers her campaign's closing argument Tuesday from
the same site where the former president fomented the Capitol insurrection in
2021.
One week out from Election Day, Harris' address from the grassy Ellipse near
the White House is designed to encourage Americans to visualize their alternate
futures if she or Trump takes over the Oval Office in less than three months.
She hoped to sharpen that contrast by delivering her capstone speech from
the place where Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, 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 and
the sealing of his own defeat.
With time running out and the race razor-tight, Harris and Trump both have
been looking for big moments to try to shift the momentum one way or the other.
But after her speech in the nation's capital, Harris will be back to furiously
scouring for votes one rally and one event after another in the battleground
states.
On Tuesday, aides said, Harris aims to look beyond the startling imagery of
her location on the Ellipse to make a broader case for voters to reject Trump
and consider what she offers.
"There's a big difference between he and I," Harris told reporters Monday in
previewing her speech. "If he were elected, on day one he's going to sit in the
Oval Office working on his enemies list. On day one, if I am elected, which I
fully expect to be, I will be working on behalf of the American people on my
to-do list."
Campaign aides stressed that she will not be delivering a treatise on
democracy -- a staple of President Biden's own attempts to draw a contrast with
Trump.
But her campaign is hoping 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.
It comes days after Harris traveled to Texas, a reliably Republican state,
to appear with megastar Beyonc 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. Harris said the event "highlighted the point that I've been making
throughout this campaign."
"He is focused and actually fixated on his grievances, on himself and on
dividing our country," she said.
Harris was expected to use her speech to lay out a pragmatic and
forward-looking plan for the country, including reminding voters about her
economic proposals and pledging to staunchly work for access to reproductive
care, including abortion.
Also central to her message: positioning herself as a "new generation" of
leader after Trump and even her current boss, Biden.
As for Trump, she said Monday, "People are literally ready to turn the page.
They're tired of it."
Harris' aides, many of whom also advised Biden's campaign before he dropped
out, still believe that centering the race on who Trump is and how she's
different will be their strongest message for voters.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said it was important for
battleground voters to be reminded of the consequences of their choice this
fall and for Harris "to really drive home the stakes of this election and the
clear contrast in the race."
He said Harris had the stronger argument on economic policies, reproductive
freedom and the matter of chaos vs. order, adding that she "has a vision that's
going to bring more order and more hopefulness and more joy."
Trump was set to use planned remarks to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in
Florida on Tuesday morning to attempt to preemptively rebut Harris' speech,
according to a person familiar with the matter.
|
|