“We are going to practice a political exorcism,” said Carrie Zimmerman, a mother living in Alexandria, cheerfully, while waiting for the start of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’s rally on the Ellipse, the large esplanade in front of the White House where the January 6, 2021, then-president Donald Trump harangued his followers before the assault on the Capitol. “This is where Trump incited an insurrection, so it is important to demonstrate our support for the vice president precisely here… and complete the exorcism at the polls next Tuesday.”
Zimmerman, accompanied by a group of friends provided, like most of the public, with American flags and T-shirts supporting the Democratic candidate, was one of the more than 75,000 people who, according to the organizers, attended the rally that the team of Harris had described as “closing arguments” at the close of the campaign. A rally in a place with the greatest possible symbolism, where the vice president sought to bring to mind that day three years ago to highlight the threat to democracy that, she claims, a new Trump mandate would bring.
And also a place from which the vice president also sought to project, in front of the south garden and the portico of the White House and in front of the Washington Monument, a presidential image. An image that fed the podium with the image of the bald eagle, symbol of the United States, and half a dozen American flags on the stage. The subliminal message: that undecided voters, who have not yet chosen between her and Trump, or who still do not even know if they will cast their ballot, could imagine her as a leader.
It was also about exhibiting convening power, in one of the most favorable areas for Democrats in the entire United States. The District of Columbia, the territory that hosts the US capital, votes overwhelmingly in favor of the blue party: in 2020, more than 90% of its ballots favored President Joe Biden. And the neighboring states, Virginia and Maryland, have clearly supported Harris’ party in the presidential elections for decades. The candidate wanted to conjure a message of optimism and boost the morale of her supporters, when the polls suggest that Trump has closed the small distance that the Democrat had closed and both rivals are in an absolute tie.
Likewise, he wanted to respond with a crowd to the massive rally that the Republican had given on Sunday at Madison Square Garden in New York, with capacity for almost 20,000 people. And the vice president took a mass bath. With signs of “Veterans for Harris and Walz”, “Freedom” and “United States”, in the colors of the American flag, a very varied audience – African-American, white, men, women, young people, retirees – welcomed her with applause deafening when the public address system urged to welcome “the next president of the United States, Kamala Harris.”
“We’re not going back!” applauded the audience, while Harris tried to accentuate her contrasts with Trump – “a petty tyrant,” she maintained – to ensure, as she has repeated at other rallies, that on her first day in office , the Republican will review “a list of grievances.” “Instead, I will be going over my list of things to solve,” he promised.
The vice president also alluded to the statements that her rival has been repeating in recent weeks, in which she describes the Democrats and those who criticize her as “the internal enemy”, against whom she would use the US army.
Harris wanted, on the other hand, to send a message of conciliation and unity: “Those who disagree with us are not the ‘enemy within’, as Trump says. They are our fellow Americans. It’s time to stop pointing fingers and start going hand in hand. It is time for a new generation of leadership.” A message that contrasted with the insults and aggressive statements at her opponent’s rally in New York (before the vice president’s intervention, the master of ceremonies had shouted in support of Puerto Rico, which a comedian had described at that event as “a floating garbage island”). With it, Harris aspired to attract moderate Republicans who may like Trump’s policies but who dislike the candidate’s aggressive personality. In what has been his most notable speech since the one he gave at the Democratic convention in Chicago in August to accept the Democratic nomination, he also reiterated his defense of reproductive rights and the promises of his economic program on housing or child care assistance.
The crowd had waited for hours to access the Ellipse. Thousands of people chose to avoid the lines surrounding the White House and its surroundings and instead head towards the Monument to follow the candidate’s words from the Mall park.
“I’m very excited, but quite nervous at the same time. “Things are very close,” said Abigail, a 58-year-old African American resident of Maryland, who said this was the first Harris rally she had attended. “I hope that when push comes to shove, people will vote for Kamala Harris and together we will take her to the White House. She is the only candidate with a program that seeks to benefit citizens, all of us. “It is the only one with a plan that includes us all.”
The vice president concluded her message, as she usually does, to the sounds of the Freedom of Beyoncé, amid applause from the public and waving American flags, hugging her husband, Douglas Emhoff, on Tuesday.
Did it convince? Carrie Zimmerman thought so. “I think there will be moderate Republicans who, in the secrecy of the voting booth, are going to check the box for Harris and Walz. Or that they will abstain. “I think Harris is going to win.”
