US Vice President Harris hopes final speech will evoke Trump's chaos
Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign advisers are weighing where and what to say about her final major speech of the campaign.
According to CNN, the campaign believes that the venue must convey a message and influence voters' choices. But equally important is the ability to evoke the promise of Ms. Harris becoming the owner of the White House.
The Ellipse - the park where Donald Trump gathered a crowd of supporters on January 6, 2021 - has been chosen by Vice President Harris' campaign team.
For Ms. Harris, finding the balance between dire warnings about her opponent and forward-looking optimism about the president has become a defining challenge in the final stretch of the campaign.
The final campaign speech on October 29 (Washington time) is one of the last opportunities for Vice President Harris to try to reach a key segment of voters known in the campaign as “conflicted voters,” or those who may be concerned about Donald Trump’s behavior but are not yet convinced that Ms. Harris is a candidate of change and can move the country in the right direction.
While it is difficult to say whether a speech will have an impact, Harris’s aides said it was also intended to draw a clear contrast to Donald Trump’s controversial final speech at Madison Square Garden on the evening of October 27. That was not the primary purpose of Harris’ speech, but they believed it was a timely rebuttal, the aides said.
According to a source close to Harris' campaign, the speech will clarify many of the key arguments Harris has made, citing reproductive freedom and how she is building an "opportunity economy."
Despite the echoes of the Ellipse Park setting — where Mr. Trump once urged his supporters to march to Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, causing a historic riot — Vice President Harris's advisers said the speech would be hopeful and optimistic, and not focus entirely on the events that took place at the site nearly four years ago.
According to advisers, if there is anything Ms. Harris wants to draw from January 6, 2021, it is that her own victory will turn the page for America.
In addition, this context also gives Ms. Harris the opportunity to describe the country's economic development plan - a top concern for voters.
The Vice President's campaign aides said that in the final week of the campaign, the speech was not intended to address completely new issues, but to highlight the key points of the race and highlight the deep contrast between the two candidates, Harris and Trump.
Standing on the Ellipse, aides said, would allow Harris to bring familiar arguments about democracy to life in a setting that would clearly highlight the efforts Trump and his supporters have made to overturn the 2020 election. The venue would also underscore how she believes a second Trump term could be worse.
Preparations began on October 28, ahead of the speech, including the installation of security fencing to create a secure perimeter around the Ellipse. The event accommodated an expected 20,000 people.