Every move from the candidates and their allies matters in a race teetering on a knife edge
One hundred days after becoming the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, it was time for Kamala Harris to present her closing argument.
With the White House as her backdrop and tens of thousands of supporters packing the outdoor arena, she set out her stall to the American public.
What she offered was a binary choice; me or him, cohesion or chaos.
“On day one, if elected, Donald Trump will walk in with an enemies list. I will walk in with a to-do list,” she said to huge cheers from the crowd.
The Harris campaign had pointedly picked the Ellipse in Washington DC as the venue for this address. Just beyond the White House’s south lawn, the garden was where Donald Trump spoke on 6 January 2021 before droves of his fans.
Standing in almost the same spot as Ms Harris now was, he made false claims about the election being stolen and urged his supporters to “fight like hell”. At least 2,000 of them, according to the FBI, then stormed the Capitol.
“We know who Donald Trump is, he is the person who stood at this spot four years ago and sent an armed mob to the US Capitol,” Ms Harris said.
There were nods in the speech to reproductive rights, to the economy and immigration. But it is clear that the Harris campaign believes the best way to win over wavering voters in the final week is focusing on the danger, they say, Trump presents to democracy.
“I think she put forward the contrast between the two of them very well,” one man, wearing a camouflage Harris/Walz baseball cap, tells me as he exits the rally.
One of the criticisms levelled at Ms Harris is that she hasn’t defined herself and her policies sufficiently to voters. But some in the crowd bristled at that suggestion.
“I think people will say they don’t know enough about her,” said Mary Laxton, a 70-year-old from the key swing state of Pennsylvania who campaigns for Ms Harris. “But I think for some people, what they really are saying is, ‘I don’t want a woman as president’. I hate to say that, but that’s what I believe.
“She may have started out the gate a little slowly, but she has come on so strong and has been very clear about who she is, what she would do for the US and for all people, especially women.”
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Ms Harris tried to draw a direct contrast with Donald Trump, whose own closing rally at Madison Square Garden was criticised for its hate-filled rhetoric and racist undertones. A comedian who appeared on the stage before Mr Trump spoke described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage”.
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Ms Harris didn’t address the rumbling controversy over Mr Trump’s rally. But from inside the White House just yards away, President Biden waded in on a campaign video call.
“Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage,” he said. “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
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Biden accused of calling Trump supporters ‘garbage’
It recalled comments made by Hillary Clinton in the 2016 campaign in which she described “half” of Mr Trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplorables”.
Mr Biden’s comment was similarly ill-advised. Although he is no longer the nominee, it threatened to overshadow Ms Harris’ big speech. It was also a reminder that with this race teetering on a knife edge, every word and every move from the candidates and their surrogates, has to be measured.
