A week from today the first Election Night results will be just hours away, but tonight Kamala Harris plans to double down on her critique of and contempt for Donald Trump in the very place where the former president riled up the MAGA mob to attack the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other, the Vice President will say of her self-declared “dictator on Day One” rival during her remarks tonight at the Ellipse in Washington, DC. “That’s who he is.”
“But America, I am here tonight to say: that’s not who we are,” the VP intends to say in her closing-argument remarks, according to excerpts provided by the campaign in this margin of error, tight race.
Starting around 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET, the symbolism of Harris’ speech at the what some consider the scene of Trump’s greatest crime from almost four years ago is self evident as a contrast, if nothing else. Local officials estimate that the crowd will be around 20,000 tonight. However, organizers and party insiders say it could go up to 50,000.
Harris merchandise is displayed ahead of Kamala Harris’s speech on the Ellipse just south of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 29, 2024.
As Harris makes her near-final appeal to the electorate, the “unstable” and “obsessed with revenge” Trump will be in the battleground state of Pennsylvania trying to mop up the mess of his Madison Square Garden rally October 27.
Earlier today in Florida, Trump said the NYC rally was full of “love in the room,” while slamming Harris for offering voters “a campaign of destruction … a campaign of absolute hate.”
From the remarks that her campaign released Tuesday, Harris plans on leaning into the contrast with the three-time GOP candidate.
“I pledge to seek common ground and common sense solutions to make your lives better,” Harris will tell the crowd tonight. “I am not looking to score political points. I am looking to make progress, I pledge to listen to experts. To those who will be impacted by the decisions I make. And to people who disagree with me. 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,” Harris is scheduled to say from the Ellipse in language she has been using at campaign events over the past month. “To always put country above party and above self.”
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff will be at the Vice President’s side tonight. Running mate Gov. Tim Walz will not be in D.C. but instead on the campaign trail in Georgia. Considered to be an electoral liability by some Democrats, President Joe Biden will be at the White House near the Ellipse participating in “a campaign call,” according to his schedule. As close as he will be, Biden will not at the rally itself.
“It’s for her,” POTUS said today in Maryland of why he will not be attending the rally for his chosen successor.
Some political operatives and pundits have pushed for the VP to talk less about Trump and his sins, and more about her plans for the future to help move the needle. Yet, today’s certain to be widely covered speech, from what we’ve seen, is continuing the line of attack Harris has been on over the past month.
With all that as backdrop, a dust-up of sorts seems to be developing between the VP and podcast superstar Joe Rogan.
Days after dropping his wide-ranging and sometimes unintentionally funny three-hour interview with Trump, the ex-Fear Factor host is saying that the Harris campaign is demanding Rogan fly to wherever the VP is for a one-hour chat. Rogan wants Harris to sit with him for three hours in his Austin studio.
The two sides may come to a last-minute agreement, but time is running out before the November 5 election, and with nearly 50 million Americans having already voted.