Kamala Harris, at Trump’s pre-insurrection rally site, casts him as dangerous chaos agent

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a closing message at the same spot near the National Mall where former President Donald Trump encouraged his allies to challenge the 2020 election at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, casting him as a dangerous chaos agent who would only bring “more division” to the nation if he wins back the White House.

Harris told those in the crowd — which her campaign numbered at 75,000 — that their vote in this election would likely be “the most important vote you ever cast,” and “a choice about whether we have a country rooted in freedom for every American, or ruled by chaos and division.”

She said Trump is someone who has sought to divide Americans from one another for the last decade, and a leader who would use the military against American citizens who disagree with him.

“America, this is not a candidate for president who is thinking about how to make your life better,” Harris said of Trump. “This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance, and out for unchecked power.”

She said that is not who Americans are or who they want in leadership, and that it is time to “stop pointing fingers,” to “turn the page” on hate and to look to a new generation of leadership.

The speech’s location underscored the Harris campaign’s belief that it has to remind voters that Trump has vowed to undertake a number of anti-democratic actions if he regains the presidency, including punishing “the enemy from within” using the courts and the military.

But that was not the only message. Speakers before Harris spoke about the threat another Trump term would pose to abortion access, and emphasized her economic agenda, saying it would help the working class.

Harris promised she would offer average Americans a leg up while Trump would only help the wealthy and his “billionaire donors,” that she would fight price gouging on groceries and prescription drugs, allow Medicare to cover the cost of home care for seniors and help young parents better afford child care, and confront companies that are “jacking up rents” and spur new affordable housing projects.

She reiterated her promise to restore women’s access to abortion care, and said she would make the progress she is promising by reaching across the political aisle and engaging in good faith with independents and Republicans — including on immigration and border security.

“I pledge to seek common ground and common sense solutions to make your life better,” she said. “I am not looking to score political points. I am looking to make progress.”

Harris has been courting disaffected Republicans for months, and several spoke at the rally — including a Pennsylvania farmer who said he had voted for Trump twice but was now eager to turn the page and elect Harris.

Speakers also included the brother of a U.S. Capitol Police officer who died after being assaulted during the Jan. 6 insurrection, a mother whose depends on the Affordable Care Act to treat her son’s diabetes, and a Texas woman who nearly died after being denied necessary abortion care following complications with her pregnancy.

“My family knows how dangerous Trump is,” said Craig Sicknick, brother of the late U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick.

The event drew thousands of people to the National Mall — and they roared with chants of “Kamala! Kamala!” as she came out to speak.

Among those in the winding security lines hours before the scheduled start time were Robyn Baggetta, a 43-year old lawyer from Washington, D.C., and her 9-year-old daughter Chiara. They wore matching shirts featuring Harris and the shadow of a young Black girl.

“She has to be here,” said Baggetta, who is Black, referring to her daughter. “I want her to see what’s possible for her future.”

Also there were Warren Peterson, a 32-year-old aquatic director from Silver Spring, Maryland, and his mother Vidisha Smith, who does not work because she is disabled. Both of them were dancing to disco music and waving American flags ahead of the speech.

“I kind of want to hear what she’s really going to do,” Peterson said of Harris. “I want to see if she can seal the deal.”

His mother, a Trump supporter, said she was also open to listening — and to maybe even to flipping her vote.

The Harris campaign was hopeful the event would stand in sharp contrast to Trump’s closing rally at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday, where speakers called Harris “the antichrist,” referred to “her pimp handlers” and called Puerto Rico“a floating island of garbage” while Trump unleashed a string of dark language depicting the country as “occupied” by migrants.

The campaign and other Republicans have disavowed the remarks about Puerto Ricans during a comedy routine by Tony Hinchcliffe, but not the other remarks, including Hinchcliffe’s insults of Latinos, Palestinians, Jews and Black people.

Trump, speaking to reporters Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, stuck to themes of immigration and inflation. But he also took pains to celebrate the rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden — in which one speaker called Hillary Clinton “a sick son of a b——” and Trump himself called the vice president a “very low-IQ individual” and “a vessel” who “can’t put two sentences together” — a “lovefest.”

“The love in that room, it was breathtaking,” Trump said. “It was like a lovefest, absolute lovefest. And it was my honor to be involved.”

He accused Harris of running a campaign of “absolute hate.”

“Her message has been a message of division,” Trump said of Harris. “My message is about saving our economy, securing our border, bringing together the greatest and broadest coalition in American history.”

Trump also criticized Harris’ remarks last week when asked in a CNN town hall if she believed Trump was a fascist. “Yes, I do,” she said.

“After two assassination attempts in just over three months, her lies and her slanders are very shameful and really inexcusable,” Trump said Tuesday.

“She’s going to keep it going as long as she can, because that’s the only way she can get elected,” Trump added. “She’s going out and only criticizing, talking about Hitler and Nazi, because her record is horrible. Her borders are the worst in the history of the world. There’s never been a border in the world like this.”

Polling shows the race is a dead heat, both in the popular vote and among the seven swing states that will likely decide the winner: Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia. The two candidates and their top allies are blanketing those states and spending more than $1 billion on ads, largely aimed at winning over the final slice of persuadable voters who make up about 5% of the electorate.

Tom Worrell, a 78-year-old retired retired union organizer from D.C. and a Vietnam War veteran wearing a Veterans for Harris shirt at Tuesday night’s rally, sounded worried — but hopeful.

“I think it’s going to be tight, but there’s a lot of quiet voters who are not responding to the polls,” he said. “And they’re going to go Harris’ way.”

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