WASHINGTON (AP) – Kamala Harris tried to remind Americans of that on Tuesday What life was like under Donald Trump and then offered voters a different path forward if they sent her to the White House in a speech that served as her campaign’s closing argument.

“I will always listen to you, even if you don’t vote for me,” she told a huge crowd that stretched from the grassy Ellipse near the White House to the Washington Monument.

Some key moments from her half-hour speech:

The location of the speech reinforced its message

Harris has consciously chosen to speak from the ellipse. It’s the same place in Washington where the Republicans were Donald Trump helped incite a mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol January 6, 2021. But the vice president didn’t devote much of her speech to that day’s violence, instead using the field between Constitution Avenue and the White House as a backdrop — a quiet reminder of the different choices facing Americans.

“Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other,” she said, adding that he wanted to return to the White House “not to focus on your problems, but to focus on his.” focus.”

Kamala Harris, the prosecutor, argued her case

Harris issued Worked as a prosecutor for years. She served as California’s attorney general before becoming a U.S. senator. And during the election campaign she often says that she only ever had one customer – the people. In her speech, she spoke about her previous work in the fight against fraudsters, violent criminals who abused women and children, and cartels that trafficked in weapons and people.

She said she would bring a protective instinct with her to the White House.

“There’s something about people being treated unfairly or overlooked that just gets on my nerves,” she said.

It’s me, hello. I am the presidential candidate. It’s me.

A week before the election, Harris admitted, “I know a lot of you are still figuring out who I am.”

The Democratic candidate has only been running for three months in a compressed election campaign that was launched afterwards President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. Harris is still confronting voters about that say they want to know more about it her and how she will rule. So she spent some time on Tuesday talking about her career, her goals and her background.

“I’ll be honest with you: I’m not perfect. I make mistakes. But I promise you one thing: I will always listen to you, even if you don’t vote for me.”

To-do list for the first day in the White House

Harris devoted a large portion of her speech to talking about policies she would implement if she won the White House, including helping first-time homeowners with down payments and supporting the so-called “sandwich generation” of adult caregivers of young children and the elderly Parents by allowing Medicare to finance elder care. She said she would work to pass a bipartisan border security bill that failed last year after Trump encouraged Republicans in Congress to abandon it.

And she said she would work to restore abortion protections. “I will fight to restore what Donald Trump and his hand-picked Supreme Court justice have taken from the women of America,” Harris said. The Supreme Court, with three justices appointed by Trump, struck down federal abortion protections in 2022. Abortion has since become one of the most motivating issues for the Democratic base in the 2024 elections.

“On day one if Donald Trump were elected, he would walk into his office with an enemies list,” she said. “If I’m elected, I’m going to come in with a to-do list.”

In the election campaign, size matters – especially for Trump

The Ellipse is a lawn between the White House and the Washington Monument that has long been the site of political events and national traditions such as the annual Christmas tree lighting. On Tuesday the room was full. Crowds streamed onto the National Mall back to the Washington Monument, where huge screens and speakers were set up so people could hear and see them from a distance.

The cheers of the boisterous crowd could be heard from the driveway of the White House. Harris’ campaign said it was her largest rally yet. She has already filled stadiums and other venues with fans during her rallies. Harris loves Trump when it comes to crowd size — a particular concern of the Republican leader, who claimed the campaign had to bus people in on Tuesday to fill the room.

Harris has called Trump “unhinged” and “unstable.” Now she adds “little tyrant.”

Harris summed up criticism of Trump in two words: “little tyrant.”

She warned that Trump was a man dominated by grievances who would focus on himself and his “list of enemies” when he moved into the White House. It commemorated the founding of the nation, when Americans fought for freedom and then endured decades of hard-fought civil rights struggles.

“They did not fight, sacrifice and give their lives just to see us give up our basic freedoms. “You didn’t do this just to see us submit to the will of another little tyrant,” she said. “This United States of America is not a vessel for the machinations of would-be dictators.”

Meanwhile, a Biden complication emerges

Just moments before Harris was scheduled to speak, Biden took part in a campaign call to which he responded a comic who called Puerto Rico trash during one Trump rally last weekend. The president said, “The only trash I see floating out there is his supporters.”

He had joined a nationwide call organized by the advocacy group Voto Latino. Biden urged those on the call to “vote to keep Donald Trump out of the White House,” adding, “He is a real danger, not just to Latinos but to all people.”

Biden’s comments were quickly seized upon by Republicans who said he was denigrating Trump supporters, a distraction for Harris as she tries to appeal to GOP voters.

Biden quickly sent out a social media post to clarify his remarks.

“His demonization of Latinos is incomprehensible,” Biden said of Trump. “That’s all I wanted to say.”

There’s still a lot of work to be done after what Harris called her “closing argument.”

The event was designed as a campaign finale to clearly explain the decision to voters in the coming week. But it’s far from Harris’ last campaign event. In her last campaign she will reach all the important states where the election is at stake.

She will headline events in Wisconsin, North Carolina and Pennsylvania on Wednesday and hold rallies in Arizona and Nevada on Thursday. More events are expected before Election Day.

The campaign wants to attract many voters different demographics in the hope that a swing vote here and there could lead to a victory in a knife-edge race with Trump.