In her closing remarks, Kamala Harris warns of ‘obsession’ with Trump’s power grab

Washington:

Kamala Harris warned against Donald Trump’s attempts to seize “unchecked power” in a fiery speech Tuesday at the site where her rival angered a crowd ahead of the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“This is a man who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed by resentment and seeking uncontrollable power,” she said.

“But America, I’m here tonight to say: That’s not who we are,” Harris told a huge crowd of flag-waving supporters against the imposing backdrop of the White House in Washington.

The campaign said 75,000 people attended the rally and it comes just a week before the current Democratic vice president faces the former Republican president in the closest and most volatile election in modern times.

The number could not immediately be verified, but the crowd was unusually large in an election that has already generated great enthusiasm.

The choice of the Ellipse, a park connecting the White House to the vast National Mall, was a direct attempt by her campaign to remind voters of the chaos caused by Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.

After Trump urged his supporters to “fight like hell” in a speech there, many then marched to the Capitol to disrupt the certification of Biden’s victory, in an attack that injured 140 police officers and shocked the world.

The choice of venue also became a symbolic display of presidential power.

Speaking from behind bulletproof screens next to huge blue banners reading “Freedom,” Harris vowed to be a “president for all Americans” – unlike Trump, whom she accused of wanting to jail his enemies.

– “Cleansing” –

The excited crowd spread far beyond the Ellipse, through the mall and all the way to the iconic obelisk of the Washington Monument, AFP reporters said.

“I think of it as a cleansing of what happened on Jan. 6,” said Mitzi Maxwell, 69, who came from Florida with her mother to see “all the love and passion and excitement that she (Harris) has become known for.” .

Some Harris supporters waited in line for more than seven hours before the speech, the size and energy of which was a direct challenge to Trump, a politician who has always boasted of his ability to draw a crowd.

Trump tried to spoil Harris’ speech by staging his own campaign event in front of a room of supporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

His remarks came as he tried to calm a firestorm during his weekend rally at New York’s famed Madison Square Garden, at which the opening comedian called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”

Trump called the New York event a “love fest,” the same phrase he used to describe the Capitol riot.

He also attacked Harris.

“Her message was one of hatred and division,” Trump said.

– Jennifer Lopez will be on the trail –

The Republican later rallied in blue-collar Allentown, Pennsylvania, perhaps the most important of the seven battleground states expected to decide the election, and a city home to a large Puerto Rican community.

Fears of a repeat of the chaos of four years ago are weighing heavily on this year’s election, with Trump repeatedly saying he could again refuse to accept the results if he loses.

On Tuesday, Trump addressed reports that Pennsylvania authorities had stopped the submission of hundreds of potentially fraudulent voter registration forms.

“Really bad things.” WHAT IS HAPPENING IN PENNSYLVANIA???” He announced this on the social network X, formerly Twitter.

Trump survived two assassination attempts and Harris replaced Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket after his shock exit from the White House race in July.

More than 50 million people have already voted early, up from nearly a third of the total number of voters four years ago, according to Tuesday’s data.

In the final days of the campaign, both candidates will face a grueling final stretch in the battlegrounds.

Actor and singer Jennifer Lopez was scheduled to join Harris in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Thursday, her campaign announced, in an effort to reach young and Latino voters.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)