Vice President Kamala Harris will warn Americans that Donald Trump is “unstable,” “obsessed with revenge,” and not at all focused on their needs when she delivers a major address in Washington in view of the White House on Tuesday evening.
According to excerpts released by her campaign, Harris will also remind the American people that Trump is “consumed with grievance” and “out for unchecked power” that he would use to punish his perceived enemies and reward friends if returned to the Oval Office for a second four-year 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 will say.
She will also remind supporters that Trump “intends to use the United States military against American citizens who simply disagree with him,” and has called people who don’t support him “the enemy within.”
“This is not a candidate for President who is thinking about how to make your life better,” she will say.
According to Harris campaign officials, the vice president’s speech will lay out her “closing argument” in this election and will include her calling on Americans to “turn the page” on nearly a decade of rancorous and divisive zero-sum politics that began when Trump announced his first campaign for the presidency in June 2015.
Jen O’Malley Dillon, the Harris campaign chair, told reporters on a call early Tuesday that this evening would be “an optimistic and hopeful message” that is “really grounded in her belief in America” and targeted towards voters who still haven’t decided who to cast their ballot for this year.
“We know a lot of these undecided voters. They’re exhausted. They’re certainly frustrated by the state of the partisanship and divided political system that really was defined under Donald Trump, his chaos, his lack of focus on real solutions about the things that the American people are concerned about, and that’s why we know tonight is really important,” she said.
In addition to calling out Trump’s instability, Vice President Harris is also set to contrast the ex-president’s focus on grievance with her comparatively positive plan for the country if she is allowed to assume the presidency next year.
According to the excerpts released by her campaign, she will note that Trump has “spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other.”
“That’s who he is. But America, I am here tonight to say: that’s not who we are,” Harris will say before saying that Trump only has “more chaos” and “more division” in mind for a second term and asking Americans for their vote while offering “a different path.”
She will also “pledge to seek common ground and common sense solutions to make your lives better” because she is “looking to make progress” rather than “score political points,” and she will further pledge to “listen to experts” as well as “those who will be impacted by the decisions I make” and “people who disagree with [her].”
“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. And I pledge to be a President for all Americans. To always put country above party and above self,” she will say.
The Ellipse, the historic location for the rally within sight of the White House’s South Lawn, was not chosen for its value in terms of electoral college votes. Washington, DC has never been a battleground and only has three electoral votes, which have always gone to Democrats.
But Harris campaign officials chose the location of the Ellipse because the White House backdrop will symbolize what a president can do for good when it comes to getting things done for Americans and uniting the country.
O’Malley Dillon, who managed President Joe Biden’s victorious 2020 campaign against Trump, said the Ellipse is significant for two reasons.
Not only does the White House visual “a reminder of the gravity of the job, how much a president can do for good and for bad, to shape the country and impact people’s lives” but the location will be a “stark visualization of probably the most infamous example of Donald Trump, and how he’s used his power for bad, really focusing on himself and spreading division and chaos and inciting a mob to try to maintain his own power and put himself over the country.”
The location Harris will speak from is the exact spot from which Trump delivered the infamous speech on January 6th, 2021 when he incited a mob of angry supporters to storm the US Capitol in hopes of stopping Congress from Joe Biden’s 2020 win.
“It’s a place that certainly we believe helps crystallize the choice in this election between a candidate seeking unchecked power in Donald Trump and another that’s really offering real solutions to chart a new way forward,” O’Malley Dillon said.
Harris and her aides hope the visual of Harris, talking about her positive vision for the country and common-sense plans in the same place where Trump urged on a riotous mob, will remind voters of why they are exhausted and frustrated by the state of politics in the age of Trump. They also hope it will help Harris harness the enthusiasm of voters who want to move forward and enter a new era of politics that is unburdened by the rancor of the Trump years.
