Speaking for about 30 minutes from the Ellipse, Harris contrasted her policy vision with Trump’s, presenting herself as his complete opposite: a president who would expand Medicare to include home health care, where Trump would pursue cuts; a leader who would defend women’s reproductive rights, where Trump would push for further restrictions; and an advocate for compromise, where Trump thrives on division.
“Our democracy doesn’t require us to agree on everything. That’s not the American way,” Harris said. “We like a good debate. And the fact that someone disagrees with us, does not make them ‘the enemy from within.’ They are family, neighbours, classmates, coworkers.”
“It can be easy to forget a simple truth,” she added. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
One hundred days after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for reelection, Harris in her remarks continued to keep him at arm’s length. Serving as Biden’s vice president, Harris said, has been an “honour.” But it would not define her administration or her objectives in office.
“My presidency will be different because the challenges we face are different,” Harris said. “Our top priority as a nation four years ago was to end the pandemic and rescue the economy. Now our biggest challenge is to lower costs, costs that were rising even before the pandemic, and that are still too high.”
Shortly after she concluded her remarks, Biden was forced to clean up comments he made earlier that evening on a get-out-the-vote call that sparked immediate backlash from many who interpreted them as referring to Trump supporters as “garbage.”
FURTHER READING
Harris tried on Tuesday to connect her personal story to how she’d lead the country – a reflection of the fact that many Americans still say they want to know more about the vice president, who’s running a campaign on an incredibly compressed timeframe, and her plans.
And while her speech didn’t deliver more policy specifics, she once again argued that her background – a child of immigrants who became a prosecutor – had prepared her to deliver on her promises.
“For as long as I can remember, I have always had an instinct to protect. There’s something about people being treated unfairly, or overlooked, that just gets to me,” Harris said. “It is what my mother instilled in me. A drive to hold accountable those who use their wealth or power to take advantage of other people.”