Washington
CNN
—

As Vice President Kamala Harris’ advisers wondered where to deliver the final major speech of her campaign, they had a few boxes to check off.

They believed that the location should convey to voters a degree of seriousness about the choice. But just as important, they said, was the ability to evoke the promise of the office she seeks.

In the Ellipse – the part of the park where Donald Trump gathered his supporters on January 6, 2021, within sight of the White House – they think they have found that balance.

“It really reminds us of the seriousness of the job, how much a president can do for good and for bad, to shape the country and impact people’s lives,” campaign chairwoman Jennifer O’Malley Dillon said Tuesday.

“But it’s also a stark visualization of probably the most infamous example of Donald Trump and how he has used his power for evil, really focusing on himself and spreading division and chaos and inciting a mob to try to destroy his own power maintain and put themselves in power. country.”

For Harris, striking a balance between dire warnings about a rival she calls fascist and forward-looking optimism about the president she would become has become a defining challenge in the final stretch of the campaign.

Tuesday’s high-profile speech is one of the last remaining opportunities for the vice president to try to reach a critical segment of the electorate known within the campaign as “conflicted voters,” aides said, or those who might worry about Trump’s behavior, but who are not yet convinced that Harris is a candidate for change who can get the country on the right track.

While it’s hard to imagine one speech could move the needle, aides said, it is also intended to create a clear contrast with Trump’s controversial rally at Madison Square Garden Sunday night. That was not the original intent of Harris’ main speech, aides said, but they believe it serves as a timely rebuttal.

“It will crystallize many of the key arguments she started with,” said a source familiar with Harris’ speech, citing reproductive freedom and her framework of what she calls an “opportunity economy.”

Despite the austere undertone of the setting – it is the place where Trump told his supporters to march on the Capitol on January 6; Many did so, resulting in destruction and death. Harris’ advisers say the speech will be hopeful and optimistic, and not focused solely on the events that unfolded at the site nearly four years ago.

If there’s anything to be said about the day she wants to drive home, it’s that her own victory would turn the page on Trump’s divisiveness, advisers said.

With the office she plans to occupy 500 meters to the north, the setting gives Harris the opportunity to describe her plans for the country, mainly on the economy, the most important issue for voters.

In the final week of the campaign, the speech is not intended to break entirely new ground, the aides said, but rather to lay out the stakes of the race and highlight the deep contrast between Harris and Trump.

By standing on the ellipse, aides said, Harris can bring familiar arguments about democracy to life in a setting that explicitly highlights the lengths Trump and his allies went to overturn the 2020 election. The venue will also highlight how it believes a second term could be even worse, they said.

“As I have said many times and I will say it in my speech tomorrow night, there is a big difference between he and I. If he were to be elected on Day 1, he will sit in the Oval Office and work on his enemies list. Harris said on Monday. “If I am elected President of the United States on Day 1, which I fully intend to do, I will work on my to-do list on behalf of the American people.”

Preparations were underway Monday ahead of the speech, including the installation of a tall black fence to create a secure perimeter around the Ellipse.

An amended permit for the event showed as many as 40,000 people were expected to attend, with an overflow onto the National Mall — her first major outdoor campaign speech in Washington. Most of Harris’s major rallies this year took place in arenas or stadiums in battleground states.

The vice president worked on her remarks as she traveled to Michigan for three campaign stops on Monday, aides said, working through final drafts for one of the biggest speeches since the Democratic convention. She is also expected to focus on the economy, by lowering prescription drug costs, and on her broader middle-class agenda, even though the sharpest contrasts are likely to be over Trump’s character.

In some ways, it harkens back to Harris’ comments at campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, the day after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race, making Tuesday’s speech something of a bookend in her extraordinarily truncated campaign.

“All of this is to say that building the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency,” Harris said at the time. “Because we know here: when our middle class is strong, America is strong.”

Aides compared Tuesday’s speech to closing arguments Harris delivered early in her career as a prosecutor. After presenting the evidence before a jury – in this case, the voters – she hopes to bring the disparate threads together into a single case for herself.

She has not lacked advice. As they have been since Biden became the party’s standard-bearer, Democrats are somewhat divided over the extent to which they should emphasize Trump’s character and perceived danger to democracy, rather than focusing more narrowly on pocketbook issues.

Last week, the leading super PAC supporting Harris’ candidacy raised concerns that the Harris campaign focused its closing message too narrowly on calling Trump a fascist.

“This topic is not as compelling as the contrasting messages about Harris’ economic plans and her promise to protect reproductive rights,” the group warned in an email to Democrats about messaging in the latter part of the campaign.

Still, Harris’ advisers believe there are moderates who will be swayed by Trump’s ties to fascism, especially when raised by his former top aide, John Kelly.

More broadly, the Harris team sees the final days of the campaign as a moment to leverage the widespread exhaustion and frustration over Trump’s chaotic politics, not only by shining a spotlight on the tumult but also by offering a clear alternative .

Since Harris rose to the top in July, her campaign has worked to capitalize on the trappings of office — and the power of strong images — to help voters see her as president and take the historic step of electing of the first wife. as commander-in-chief.

The sweeping backdrop of the White House and National Mall was designed for maximum effect a week before the final day of voting. It’s a bit like an August rally in Detroit, where Harris addressed thousands of people in front of the majestic backdrop of Air Force Two.

The primetime speech on the Ellipse comes amid growing concerns from some about the amount of time Harris is spending trying to disqualify Trump compared to what she would do if elected. The speech on Tuesday evening, advisers told CNN, is intended as a balance of both messages.

“We don’t have the luxury of just talking about what she would do as president,” said a top Democratic adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss strategic decisions. “We cannot pretend that these are normal elections.”