Harris’ closing argument: ‘Turn the page and start writing the next chapter’

Vice President Kamala Harris made her final case for her bid for the presidency on Washington, D.C.’s Ellipse on Tuesday where she gave an optimistic and hopeful message focused on moving forward.

Standing with the White House in the background, Harris offered a split screen between her and former President Donald Trump and urgedvoters to “turn the page” on Trump’s era by pledging to put country over party.

“This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance and out for unchecked power. Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other,” she said.

She criticized Trump for the “enemy within” language he has used to describe political opponents, saying he is “unstable” and “consumed with grievance.”

Pivoting to her promise to Americans, she was pledged “to seek common ground and common sense solutions to make your lives better. I am not looking to score political points. I am looking to make progress.”

“We have to stop pointing fingers and start locking arms. It is time to turn the page on the drama and the conflict, the fear and division. It is time for a new generation of leadership in America,” Harris said.

“I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy,” she said. “He wants to put them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at the table.”

About 40,000 people were expected to attend the event, according to an approved permit from the National Park Service — an increase from the 20,000 people who were expected to attend, according to the permit issued to the campaign last week.

Harris has adamantly said that the speech’s location near 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 wanted 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 highlighted 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.