By STEVE PEOPLES, AP Nationwide Political Author
NEW YORK (AP) — Within the shadow of the White Home, seven days earlier than the ultimate votes of the 2024 election are solid, Kamala Harris vowed to place nation over social gathering and warned that Donald Trump is obsessive about revenge and his personal private pursuits.
Lower than 48 hours earlier inside Madison Square Garden, Trump referred to as his Democratic opponent “a trainwreck who has destroyed every thing in her path.” His allies on stage labeled Puerto Rico a “floating island of rubbish” and made a baseless declare that Harris, a former prosecutor and senator who’s making an attempt to grow to be the primary girl to be elected president, had begun her profession as a prostitute.
Two nights and 200 miles aside, the dueling closing arguments outlined in stark phrases the selection U.S. voters face on Nov. 5 when they’ll weigh two very totally different visions of management and America’s future.
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Trump’s raucous rally, marked by crude and racist insults, highlighted the uglier components of his coalition. However different elements of it underscored the previous businessman’s enchantment as somebody who vows to repair the economic system and the border, and as a political outsider wanting to defy any and all conventions regardless of the dangers.
Harris, the vice chairman for the final 4 years, selected a extra formal setting — the grassy Ellipse close to the White Home — to underscore the seriousness of this second in American historical past and the menace Trump poses to democracy. She confronted a large viewers in the identical place the place Trump addressed 1000’s of his loyalists on Jan. 6, 2021, earlier than they stormed the U.S. Capitol in one of many darkest days of recent historical past.
However greater than merely reminding voters of the hazard that Trump poses to U.S. democracy, Harris’ remarks have been designed to focus on her opponent’s file of prioritizing his private pursuits as an alternative of the nation’s.
“Donald Trump has spent a decade making an attempt to maintain the American folks divided and afraid of one another. That’s who he’s. However America, I’m right here tonight to say: That’s not who we’re,” Harris mentioned. “I pledge to be a president for all People — to at all times put nation above social gathering and above self.”
Senior adviser Jen O’Malley Dillon famous that Harris’ closing argument is designed to achieve the slim slice of undecided voters; many reasonable Republicans are amongst them.
“We all know that there are nonetheless loads of voters on the market which can be nonetheless making an attempt to resolve who to assist — or whether or not to vote in any respect,” O’Malley Dillon mentioned. “And this race is extraordinarily shut. We discuss it as a margin of error race. We all know it’ll be closed out on this remaining week.”
Trump’s crew is extra centered on energizing his partisan base and reaching rare voters throughout the political spectrum who’re annoyed by the route of the nation and in search of change.
Nonetheless, Trump framed his feedback in latest days with a easy query that cuts throughout political strains, asking voters whether or not they’re higher off now than they have been 4 years in the past on the finish of his first time period. Whereas the nation was nonetheless within the throes of the pandemic when Trump left workplace, polls point out that almost all voters are sad with the route of the nation immediately.
Trump has vowed to stage the biggest deportation operation in U.S. historical past and impose broad tariffs to generate income and increase American manufacturing.
Ever defiant going through criticism from even some Republicans, Trump on Tuesday referred to as his Madison Sq. Backyard occasion “a lovefest” and didn’t tackle the feedback of pro-Trump comic Tony Hinchcliffe, who referred to as Puerto Rico a “floating island of rubbish.” Hinchcliffe additionally made demeaning jokes about Black folks, different Latinos, Palestinians and Jews in his routine earlier than Trump took the stage.
“No one’s ever had love like that,” Trump mentioned of the hours-long Sunday occasion that featured his relations and high-level surrogates and supporters together with billionaire Elon Musk, TV psychologist “Dr. Phil” McGraw and former Fox Information host Tucker Carlson. “It was actually love for our nation.”
The Republican former president on Tuesday additionally supplied a darkish evaluation of Harris’ management. He mentioned that she “obliterated” the nation’s borders, “decimated the center class,” introduced “bloodshed and squalor” to main cities and “unleashed conflict and chaos everywhere in the world.”
“No one that has prompted a lot destruction and dying at house and overseas ought to ever be allowed to be the president of the US,” Trump informed dozens of supporters who gathered at his Florida property.
Trump senior adviser Jason Miller mentioned Trump has made clear his plans to repair the economic system, safe the southern border and “enhance folks’s every day lives.”
“Kamala Harris hasn’t completed any of that,” he mentioned. “It’s a message of despair, private assaults and nothing from Harris or her marketing campaign about what they’re really going to do to assist People. So it’s a large distinction.”
Harris has largely moved on from the “joyful” campaigning fashion that outlined her entrance into the presidential contest this summer season. She pledged unity on Tuesday evening, however she additionally solid Trump as somebody pushed extra by revenge and grievance than a dedication to the folks.
“That is somebody who’s unstable, obsessive about revenge, consumed with grievance and out for unchecked energy,” Harris mentioned. “This isn’t a candidate for president who is considering methods to make your life higher.”
She spoke on to Republican voters at occasions and promised to take heed to those that didn’t vote for her if elected. Harris beforehand mentioned she would come with a Republican in her Cupboard.
“Not like Donald Trump, I don’t consider individuals who disagree with me are the enemy,” she mentioned. “He desires to place them in jail. I’ll give them a seat on the desk.”
Heading into the speech, the Democrat’s marketing campaign was conscious of criticism from her social gathering’s far-left base that she has been too centered on courting reasonable Republican voters. They urged Harris to focus extra on working-class priorities than the menace Trump poses to U.S. democracy.
In the end, the vice chairman’s speech was designed to tie each points collectively. She warned of Trump threatening democratic norms and vowed to take motion in opposition to excessive grocery costs and assist first-time house consumers with making a down cost.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a high Harris ally, mentioned voters can “stroll and chew gum on the identical time — which means they will hear an argument about freedom and about one thing that impacts their pocketbook. And I believe she is definitely succesful to prosecute each circumstances on the identical time.”
Sisters Michelle Detwiler and Renee Newell drove from Virginia to attend Harris’ remarks on the Ellipse.
“We each have daughters and we’re each right here for them,” Newell mentioned. Detwiler mentioned the placement of the occasion is a “nice counterpoint to the imagery of Jan. 6. D.C. is a good metropolis for peaceable public gatherings.
“We’re so glad to be right here and to expertise the enjoyment,” she mentioned.
Related Press writers Zeke Miller and Fatima Hussein in Washington and Jill Colvin in New York contributed.
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