Politics

Harris to deliver ‘closing argument’ for 2024 election in remarks on DC’s Ellipse

Written by ABC Audio ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on October 29, 2024

(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris is set to make her final case for her bid for the presidency on Washington, D.C.’s Ellipse on Tuesday where she is expected to give an optimistic and hopeful message that’s focused on moving forward, according to a senior Harris campaign official.

Standing in front of the White House, Harris will offer a split screen and urge voters to “turn the page” on former President Trump’s era by pledging to put country over party, the senior campaign official said. About 20,000 people are expected to attend the event, according to an approved permit from the National Park Service.

Harris has adamantly said that the speech’s location on the National Mall — the same spot where Trump delivered remarks prior to the Jan.6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol — was to remind Americans of their choice between Harris and Trump and who would go on to the White House.

“I would and do think about that place more in the context of what will be behind me, which is the White House. And I’m doing it there, because I think it is very important for the American people to see and think about who will be occupying that space on Jan. 20,” Harris recently said to CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell.

“The reality of it is that most Americans can visualize the Oval Office. We’ve seen it on television, and this is a real scenario. It’s either going to be Donald Trump or it’s going to be me sitting behind the resolute desk in the Oval Office.”

With a week until Election Day, both Harris and Trump are working to make their final appeals to undecided voters in what is expected to be a close contest.

Harris’ campaign said she plans to paint Trump as someone who is consumed by his grievances and an endless desire for retribution, highlighting his pledge to go after those on his “enemies list” and how it contrasts with Harris’ focus on her “to-do list.” It’s a message she often incorporates into her stump speech.

“He is full of grievances. He is full of dark language that is about retribution and revenge, and so the American people have a choice. It is either going to be that, or it’ll be me there, focused on my to-do list, focused on the American people, and getting through that list of goals and plans to improve the lives of the American people,” Harris said to reporters on Sunday while campaigning in Philadelphia.

Her closing argument will highlight what she claims is a desire for Americans to “turn the page” from Trump by stressing her plans and priorities for the country, namely the economy. The vice president has promised to bring down costs and prioritize the middle class in her “opportunity economy.”

Following her speech on the Ellipse, Harris plans to take this message on the road to while crisscrossing through battleground states in the campaign’s final days. The events will be centered along a get-out-the-vote concert series.

“I’m spending time in all communities to make sure that they hear directly from me, so they can judge for themselves in a way that is unfiltered. And I’m going to continue doing that. I am leaving nothing on the field in this election, leaving nothing on the field,” Harris said in an interview with MSNBC earlier this month.