'Time to turn the page': Kamala Harris implores country to move on from Trump in DC speech

WASHINGTON – With the White House illuminated behind her, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris made a plea to undecided voters on Tuesday night to "turn the page" on Donald Trump, as she sought to rewrite the legacy of the Ellipse from the Republican's Jan. 6 speech that preceded an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Harris' address at times touched on the optimistic approach she said she'd bring to the presidency. Swinging away at Trump, the Democratic presidential candidate also blasted her Republican opponent for cultivating turmoil when he was in the White House.

“America for too long, we have been consumed with too much division, chaos and mutual distrust. It can be easy then, to forget a simple truth: It doesn't have to be this way,” Harris said. “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."

She told a crowd, which her campaign estimated at 75,000: “It is time for a new generation of leadership in America. And I am ready to offer that leadership."

With a week left until Election Day on Nov. 5, Harris and Trump have traded insults as they crisscrossed the country trying to drum up support in a race that is statistically tied. The two politicians have been making last-ditch efforts to appeal to disengaged voters by holding large, attention-grabbing events like the controversial rally Trump held on Sunday evening rally at Madison Square Garden and Harris’ speech on Tuesday night at the Ellipse.

Throughout the campaign, Trump has blamed Harris for inflation and high prices across the nation. He has also hit the incumbent Democratic vice president on the Biden administration's immigration policies, saying she is to blame for the rise in migrants coming to the United States.

In a prepared statement on Tuesday, Trump's campaign slammed Harris' speech for its "dark, angry, and negative message that was marked by her sheer desperation."

"While Kamala peddles division, President Trump is honing in on the issues that matter to voters — fixing the economy, securing the border, protecting Americans' freedoms, and re-establishing America's strength around the world," the Trump campaign said.

Harris' remarks were directed primarily at Americans watching at home who may not be planning to vote in the election. She also acknowledged in her speech that many of the attendees at the rally have probably already cast their ballots.

For those who have not, she told them, "We know who Donald Trump is, he is the person who stood in this very spot nearly four years ago and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election. An election that he knew he lost."

She said she would offer a different path than Trump or President Joe Biden if she's elected on Nov. 5.

“My presidency will be different, because the challenges we face are different,” she said, adding that four years ago she and Biden were focused on ending the pandemic and reducing the economy. “Now, our biggest challenge is to lower costs, costs that were rising even before the pandemic and that are still too high.”

The vice president has been repeatedly asked how she will be different from the current administration, but has been reluctant to draw a contrast between her and Biden.

Committing to working with all Americans, Harris touted her proposals to lower costs for Americans, including a federal ban on price gouging, capping insulin prices and supporting first-time home buyers.

With a week until Election Day, Harris also acknowledged she's still introducing herself to voters who may not know who she is.

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While Harris in her speech promised to take the United States in a new direction if elected, remarks from Biden from earlier Tuesday snatched the spotlight away from his vice president.

Addressing the racist comments a comedian at Trump’s rally on Sunday made about Puerto Rico being a “floating island of garbage," Biden said during a virtual event with Voto Latino: “The only garbage I see floating out there are his supporter’s – his – his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and it’s un-American,” according to a transcript released by the White House.

Biden's remarks sparked immediate backlash from Republican lawmakers and from Trump, who held a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday evening at the same time as Harris' event. Trump said Biden’s remarks were “terrible,” and likened them to Hillary Clinton's comments calling some of his supporters "deplorables" during the 2016 presidential campaign that he won.

Biden later wrote in a post on X that he was referring “to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump's supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage.”

‘Reclaiming’ the Ellipse from Jan. 6

Ahead of her speech, thousands of Harris supporters waited in a line that snaked up and down 15th Street in Washington D.C. from the National Mall to Pennsylvania Avenue.

Street vendors walked up and down the crowd selling t-shirts, buttons and other gear to support the Democratic nominee. Music filled the air as a buzz of voices waited to be allowed on the Ellipse. Many attendees wore clothing in support of Harris’ candidacy, while others wore shirts that said “Vote” and “Black Lives Matter.” Some attendees were dressed up as Harris’ signature shoe: Converse.

Inside the event, a DJ played songs like Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” and Jennifer Lopez’s “Let’s Get Loud” – both artists have endorsed the vice president. The DJ also played a Trump campaign classic, the Village People's Y.M.C.A.

Volunteers passed out an array of snacks, including cotton candy, pop tarts and fruit snacks. At the end of the night, volunteers gave away a surplus of cotton candy.

Daraja Carroll, 28, lives blocks away from the White House and rode a scooter to the event with her friend, Sharlie Goodson, 29. Like Harris, Carroll hails from California – the same place Harris first served as district attorney, San Francisco. And like Harris, Carroll has dreams of being an attorney general one day.

“I just couldn't sit on my couch,” she said. “I am a black woman attorney. I am a descendant of enslaved people. I am a history buff who knows my family's history…There's so many reasons why I came today to support her. I felt like I couldn't sit at home.”

Four years ago, Carroll joined in at a block party at St. John’s Lafayette Square church – the same location Trump cleared out during a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020 after Biden beat Trump. Carroll said at the time, they were reclaiming that space.

Now, Harris is reclaiming the Ellipse, she said.

“Because as much as you disrespect the Black history in the city, here we are reclaiming it,” she said. “Being in D.C., like the slaves built this, and so for her to be on this stage in front of these buildings that were built by my ancestors and disrespected by these racist white people, it is special. We do have to reclaim it.”

Tosha Taylor of Hughesville, Md., said Harris’ rally is a “clear contrast” from the Trump rally Americans saw four years ago. Taylor, an Air Force and Army veteran, said Harris’ event is one that is “full of solidarity and love for country and real patriotism.”

But Trump’s Jan. 6 rally was “full of hate,” Taylor said.

“This is totally different,” the 53-year-old said. “Put the two pictures beside each other. You see solidarity, happiness and joy and pro-country. The other one is anti-country, trying to overthrow your government. It was full of hate and violence and all kinds of crazy stuff, and wannabe patriots.”

Suzy Wagner and her husband, Eric, said they believe that Harris hit the nail on the head of why voters should support her.

“Everything that she came out with was the antithesis of what he's been saying and the fear mongering that he's been pushing out there,” said Suzy Wagner, 54, of Arlington, Va. “We're just over it.”

(This story has been updated with a new photo.)

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kamala Harris urges voters to move on from Trump in DC address