Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver her “closing argument” to voters a week before Election Day at a symbolic site – The Ellipse – where former President Donald Trump addressed his supporters before they attacked the Capitol on January 6.
The move comes as Harris has shifted from her “joyful” campaign to one with darker themes – warning Americans of the dangers of a second Trump term.
On Wednesday, Harris stood outside her Naval Observatory residence and delivered remarks about revelations made by Trump’s former White House chief of staff, John Kelly.
Kelly said in interviews with The New York Times published Tuesday that the GOP nominee meets the definition of a “fascist” and has said positive things about Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
Harris has also enlisted the support of anti-Trump Republicans, including former Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who were the only two Republican lawmakers serving on the House committee on Jan. 6.
Vice President Kamala Harris (left) will deliver a “closing argument” to the nation from the Ellipse – the same location where President Donald Trump (right) addressed his supporters on January 6 before the US Capitol was sacked
Early in the week, Harris traveled to “blue wall” states with Cheney.
She had Kinzinger speak at an event in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with other anti-Trump Republicans a week ago.
“We have to put the country first. We must put country before party,” Kinzinger said at the event.
Much of their arguments against Trump revolve around the ex-president’s actions on January 6.
Now she will follow in Trump’s footsteps by addressing her own supporters at the site where the then-Republican president held his “Save America” rally.
Falsely claiming widespread election fraud, which cost him a second term, Trump invited his faithful to the Ellipse – the park just south of the White House where the National Christmas Tree stands during the holidays.
There he told the crowd that they would “stop the stealing.”
“Today I will lay out just some of the evidence that shows we won this election, and by a landslide,” Trump falsely claimed at the time. “This was not a close election.”
It’s the place where Trump famously said, “If Mike Pence does the right thing, we’ll win the election.”
Pence presided over the joint session of Congress just down the road, where lawmakers counted the Electoral College votes and certified President Joe Biden’s victory.
“It is now up to Congress to confront this blatant attack on our democracy. And after this, we’re going to walk down, and I’m going to be there with you, we’re going to walk down, we’re going to walk down,” Trump said at the time.
He said, “we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen, and some of them we probably won’t cheer as much.”
“Because you will never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and be strong,” he said. “We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and count only those electors who have been lawfully appointed.”
“I know that everyone here will soon be marching to the Capitol to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” the then-president added.
The mob then broke into the Capitol, chanted “hang Mike Pence,” injured large numbers of police officers and delayed the counting of votes for several hours.