What time is Kamala Harris speaking today?

Kamala Harris on Tuesday will vow to “put country before party and before self” in the closing argument of her presidential campaign, delivered from the same spot where Donald Trump incited the insurrection at the Capitol, hoping to offer a powerful visualization of what’s happening. choices voters face.

A week before Election Day, the vice president was scheduled to use her 7:30 pm ET address from the grassy ellipse outside the White House to promise Americans that she would work to improve their lives, arguing that her Republican opponent was only doing that . for yourself.

Trump “spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other: This is who he is,” Harris will say, according to prepared remarks released by her campaign. “But America, I’m here tonight to say: That’s not who we are.”

She hoped to deepen that contrast by delivering her capstone speech from the spot where Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, spewed lies about the 2020 presidential election that inspired a mob to march to the Capitol and unsuccessfully try to stop the certification of Democrat Joe Biden. victory.

Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver her campaign speech from the Ellipse outside the White House on Tuesday, October 29 at 7:30 pm ET.

Where is Kamala Harris performing tonight?

Kamala Harris will speak Tuesday night from the Ellipse, the lawn across from the White House South Lawn on Constitution Avenue.

Melania Trump made a rare appearance at her husband Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday, October 27, and even made brief remarks.

With time running out and the race tight, Harris and Trump were both looking for big moments to try to swing the tide in their favor.

“We believe this space helps crystallize the choices in this election,” Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said of the site, calling it “a powerful visualization of perhaps the most disgraceful example of Donald Trump and how he has used his power for evil.”

Campaign aides have stressed that Harris will not deliver a treatise on democracy – a staple of President Joe Biden’s attempts to create a contrast with Trump – or spend too much time focusing directly on the shocking images of that day. Harris aides said the vice president is seeking to make a broader case for why voters should reject Trump and consider what she offers.

“He has a list of enemies that he intends to bring to justice,” Harris says. “He says one of his top priorities is the release of violent extremists who attacked law enforcement officers on January 6. Donald Trump intends to use the United States military against American citizens who simply disagree with him. People he calls “enemies”. from the inside.” This is not a presidential candidate who thinks about how to make your life better.”

Her campaign hoped to attract a huge crowd to the event in Washington. But more importantly, her campaign hopes the environment will help reach voters in states who remain undecided about who to vote for — or whether to vote at all.

The call came days after Harris traveled to Texas, a heavily Republican state, to meet with megastar Beyoncé and highlight the consequences for women after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. It was also a speech designed to register voters in distant battleground states.

The Vice President’s latest address has been in the works for several weeks. But aides hoped her message would have more impact after Trump’s rally Sunday at Madison Square Garden in New York, where speakers hurled violent and racist insults. Harris said the event “underscored what I’ve been emphasizing throughout this campaign.”

“He is focused and actually fixated on his grievances, on himself and on dividing our country,” she said.

Harris was expected to use her speech to lay out a pragmatic and forward-looking plan for the country, including reminding voters of her economic proposals and promising to work on access to reproductive care, including abortion.

“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t consider people who disagree with me to be the enemy,” Harris says. “He wants to put them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at my table. And I promise to be a president for all Americans. Always put the country above the party and above yourself.”

Also central to her message: positioning herself as the leader of a “new generation” after Trump and even her current boss, Biden. She’s going to “talk about what her next generation of leadership really means and center it around the American people and what they care about,” O’Malley Dillon said.

As for Trump, Harris said Monday: “People are literally ready to turn the page. They’re tired of it.”

Ahead of Harris’ speech, Trump addressed reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Tuesday morning to accuse Harris of ending with a message that did not address the everyday concerns of Americans and their kitchen table. concern.

He said Harris continues to “talk about Hitler and the Nazis because her record is terrible,” referring to Harris amplifying her former chief of staff’s warnings that Trump spoke admiringly of the Nazi leader while in office.

Harris aides, many of whom also advised Biden’s campaign before he bowed out, still believe that focusing the race on who Trump is and how he is different will be their strongest message to voters .

“She has already presented her arguments, she has presented evidence. Tonight she is taking stock and trusting in the wisdom of the jury,” said campaign communications director Michael Tyler.

Biden told reporters Tuesday that he would not attend Harris’ speech because the event was “for her,” but he planned to watch it on television.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said it was important that voters in battleground states be reminded of the consequences of their choices this fall, and Harris “really drove home the stakes of this election and the clear contrast in the race.”

He said Harris had stronger arguments on economic policy, reproductive freedom and the issue of chaos and order, adding that she “has a vision that will bring more order, more hope and more joy.”

Ruth Kyari, 78, of Charlottesville, Virginia, attended the pro-democracy rally with her husband.

“I think everyone understands what the ballot says,” she said as she stood in line outside the Treasury building to attend the event. “We will either have an autocrat or freedom.”

Harris spent the day before her speech taping television interviews that aired in Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, as well as on Spanish-language radio in Pennsylvania, her campaign said.

Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in Palm Beach, Florida, Ayana Alexander in Baltimore and Fatima Hussein and Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.