WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris will hold a rally Tuesday near the White House at the site where Donald Trump addressed a crowd he encouraged to march to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, shortly before it was violently attacked in a bid to overturn the election he lost.
Harris is scheduled to speak seven days before polls close on Election Day — and 100 days since President Joe Biden exited the race and propelled her to the top of the ticket — appearing at dusk on the Ellipse with a backdrop of the White House, which either she or Trump will occupy in three months.
Harris will call on Americans to “turn the page” on the Trump era and present herself as a pragmatist who will put results over party, according to a senior Harris campaign official who requested anonymity. The official said she will continue to press a line she has invoked frequently in recent days, that Trump’s focus would be an “enemies list” — a reference to his recent comments about wielding the power of government against political rivals — and hers a “to-do list” that centers on lowering costs for people.
Trump has sought to make the election a referendum on the Biden-Harris administration, blaming his rival for the inflation and border chaos of recent years as polls show razor-thin margins in the seven swing states likely to decide the next president.
Harris’ entry into the race after Biden’s unprecedentedly late decision to exit has forced her to cram an entire campaign into a short window. She has sought to introduce herself to voters while also prosecuting her case against Trump, including finding the points where she would pivot away from Biden and embrace a new tack.
That has left Democrats weighing their best message, trying to bounce between responding to polls that say voters want to know more about Harris while trying to remind Americans who voted Trump out of office in 2020 why they didn’t want him in power.
Harris has made criticizing Trump’s authoritarian rhetoric a major part of her closing argument, enlisting anti-Trump Republicans like former Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger to encourage undecided Republicans and center-right independents to vote for her. Her campaign aims to invoke Jan. 6 as a way to remind those voters what they don’t like about Trump.
Harris has cited former Trump chief of staff John Kelly’s recently published comments that Trump is “certainly an authoritarian” and “certainly falls into the general definition of fascist.” Kelly also said Trump spoke positively about Adolf Hitler when he was president. Thirteen former Trump administration officials backed Kelly’s criticism in a letter.
Harris has called Trump a “fascist” and argued that he is running for a third successive presidential cycle to claim unchecked power. Trump has responded by labeling Harris a fascist and a communist at once. On Sunday, Trump held a packed rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City to make his own closing pitch — an event that garnered headlines for the racist comments made by his allies who spoke first.
At the same time, some Democrats believe Harris must close the deal with a clear economic pitch about how she would ease the pain on middle-class pocketbooks.
The Democratic polling firm Blueprint tested a series of anti-Trump messages and found that among persuadable voters in swing states, the strongest messages were focused on economics — cutting grocery prices, protecting Social Security and opposing corporate tax cuts. Highlighting Kelly’s remarks about Trump’s authoritarian inclinations helped Harris among those crucial voters, the firm said in a memo, but by less than the economic-focused pitches.
The speech Tuesday represents an attempt by Harris to tackle both those goals at once. Her campaign hopes it will be seen as a hopeful and optimistic address with imagery of the White House behind her.
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