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VP Harris delivers closing argument at Ellipse
Kamala Harris promised Tuesday to "put country above party and above self" in the closing argument of her presidential campaign, delivering her message from the same site where Donald Trump fomented the Capitol insurrection, to emphasize the sharp choice voters face.
null - Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump made their final pitches to voters ahead of next week’s presidential election.
Trump delivered remarks to reporters Tuesday morning at his private club and residence in Palm Beach, Florida. He opened his remarks to reporters at Mar-a-Lago by saying Harris is running on a "campaign of destruction" and "of absolute hate," accusing her team of "perhaps even trying to destroy our country."
The former president wrapped up his remarks without referencing the controversial comments comedian Tony Hinchcliffe during his New York rally last weekend. But he did reference the event overall, calling it "an absolute lovefest" in his hometown.
Trump said he doesn’t know the comic who made racist and vile jokes at his big Madison Square Garden rally, but he did not denounce the comments either.
Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage" during the Sunday event at Madison Square Garden. His remark has drawn wide condemnation and highlighted the rising power of a key Latino group in the swing state of Pennsylvania. He also made demeaning jokes about Black people, other Latinos, Palestinians and Jews during his routine before Trump’s appearance.
RELATED: Harris vs. Trump latest polls: Here's who's winning with 1 week until Election Day
On Tuesday, Trump tried to move past the controversy and pivot back to Harris, lashing his rival’s record on the border and inflation, saying that, "on issue after issue, she broke it" and "I’m going to fix it and fix it very fast." He took no questions from reporters.
In an interview with ABC News earlier Tuesday, Trump tried to distance himself from Hinchcliffe but did not denounce what he said.
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Trumps speaks from Mar-A-Lago with 1 week to go
Former President Trump gave remarks to the press from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., Tuesday morning. The appearance comes a week before Election Day and just days after he held a high-profile rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Trump’s campaign has faced backlash after one of the rally speakers made a racist joke about Puerto Rico — and the team has sought to distance the GOP presidential nominee from the comment.
"I don’t know him. Someone put him up there. I don’t know who he is," Trump said, according to the network, insisting that he hadn’t heard Hinchcliffe’s comments. When asked what he made of them, Trump "did not take the opportunity to denounce them, repeating that he didn’t hear the comments," ABC reported.
The Harris campaign has released an ad that will run online in battleground states targeting Puerto Rican voters and highlighting the comedian’s remarks, the Associated Press reported.
The comments landed Harris a show of support from Puerto Rican music star Bad Bunny and prompted reactions from Republicans in Florida and Puerto Rico.
Trump headed to Pennsylvania later in the day for a Building America's Future event in Drexel and a rally Tuesday night in Allentown.
Kamala Harris promises to put country ‘above self’
Kamala Harris promised Tuesday to "put country above party and above self" in the closing argument of her presidential campaign, delivering her message from the same site where Donald Trump fomented the Capitol insurrection, to emphasize the sharp choice voters face.
One week out from Election Day, the vice president used the address from the grassy Ellipse near the White House to pledge to Americans that she would work to improve their lives while arguing that her Republican opponent is only in it for himself.
Trump "has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other: That’s who he is," Harris said. "But America, I am here tonight to say: That’s not who we are."
She looked to sharpen that contrast by delivering her capstone speech from the place where Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, spewed falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election that inspired a crowd to march to the Capitol and try unsuccessfully to halt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's victory.
"Look, we know who Donald Trump is. He is the person who stood at 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," she said.
Harris did not deliver a treatise on democracy — a staple of President Joe Biden’s own attempts to draw a contrast with Trump. Instead she aimed to make a broader case for why voters should reject Trump and consider what she offers, and encouraged the crowd to visualize their divergent futures hanging in the balance on Election Day.
"He has an enemies list of people he intends to prosecute," Harris said. "He says one of his highest priorities is to set free the violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers on Jan. 6. Donald Trump intends to use the United States military against American citizens who simply disagree with him. People he calls 'the enemy from within.' This is not a candidate for president who is thinking about how to make your life better."
Her campaign drew a massive crowd to Washington for the event, with an overflow crowd spilling under the Washington Monument on the National Mall. More critically, her campaign hopes the setting will help catch the attention of battleground state voters who remain on the fence about whom to vote for — or whether to vote at all.
Ahead of Harris' remarks, her campaign organized a speakers list of ordinary Americans, rather than the star power that has been featured at some of her recent events, or the parade of elected officials often in the program at Washington events. They included Amanda Zurawski, a woman who nearly died from sepsis after being denied care under Texas' strict abortion ban, and Craig Sicknick, the brother of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack.
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Candidates make final push for the White House
Uncertainty reigns entering the final full week of the 2024 campaign with Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump locked in a fiercely competitive presidential contest. John Reid, conservative commentator, joined LiveNOW from FOX to discuss the race to the White House.
Separately, during an interview Tuesday morning, Harris called the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post decisions not to endorse in the presidential race "disappointing."
The Democratic presidential nominee made the comment during an interview with Charlamagne tha God, DJ Envy, and Loren LoRosa for "The Breakfast Club."
Harris sought to tie the decisions to billionaires in "Donald Trump’s club." Both publications are owned by wealthy executives, Jeff Bezos at the Post and Patrick Soon-Shiong at the Times.
Podcast host Joe Rogan polls listeners on a potential interview with Kamala Harris
In a post on the social platform X, podcast host Joe Rogan said the Democrat’s campaign offered a date for Tuesday for an hour-long conversation, but that he would have had to meet her on the road. Rogan said he feels strongly that the conversation is best when done in his studio in Austin, Texas.
He headlined the post: "!! Austin TX podcast or let her walk. Thoughts?"
Asked for comment, a Harris campaign official said they were willing to sit down with Rogan when Harris was in Texas last week, but Rogan couldn’t accommodate, according to the Associated Press.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the campaign’s internal deliberations, told the Associated Press that Rogan was offered the option of joining Harris on the road, but that Rogan has insisted that the conversation be taped in Austin.
Trump sat down with Rogan for three hours last Friday in Texas.