WASHINGTON— Kamala Harris tried to remind Americans on Tuesday He described what life was like under Donald Trump and, in what was billed as his campaign closing speech, offered voters a different path if they sent him to the White House.

“Even if you don’t vote for me, I will always listen to you,” he said. I’m talking In front of a huge crowd that stretched from the grassy Ellipse near the White House to the Washington Monument.

Some highlights from his half-hour speech:

Harris I deliberately chose to speak from the ellipse. Same place where Republicans are in Washington Donald Trump Helped incite a mob that attacked the US Capitol January 6, 2021. But the vice president did not devote much of his speech to the day’s violence; instead used the area between Constitution Avenue and the White House more as a backdrop; It was a quiet reminder of the different options facing Americans.

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

Harris spent I worked as a prosecutor for years. Before becoming a U.S. senator, he was California’s attorney general. And on campaign tours, he often says he has only one customer: people. In his speech, he talked about his past work on fraudsters, violent criminals who abuse women and children, and cartels that traffic weapons and people.

He said he would bring his protective instincts with him to the White House.

“It bothers me when people are treated unfairly or ignored,” he said.

A week before the election, Harris acknowledged: “I know many of you are still learning who I am.”

The Democratic nominee has only been running for three months in a compressed campaign that launched later. President Joe Biden withdrew from the race. Harris still facing voters They say they want to know more about it and how to manage it. So he spent some time on Tuesday talking about his career, goals and background.

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

Harris spent much of her speech talking about the policies she would enact if she won the White House; these include helping first-time homebuyers with down payments and helping adults in the so-called “sandwich generation.” He said he would work to pass a bipartisan border security bill that would allow elder care to be funded by Medicare, which fizzled out last year after Trump encouraged congressional Republicans to let it die.

And he said he would work to restore abortion protections. “I will fight to take back what Donald Trump and his hand-picked Supreme Court justices took from American women,” Harris said. The Supreme Court, along with three Trump-appointed justices, struck down federal protections for abortion in 2022. Since then, abortion has become one of the issues most motivating the Democratic base in the 2024 elections.

“On Day One, if elected, Donald Trump would walk into that office with a list of enemies,” he said. “When I’m elected, I’ll walk in with a to-do list.”

The ellipse is a grassy area between the White House and the Washington Monument that has long hosted political events and national traditions such as the annual holiday tree lighting. The area was packed on Tuesday. The crowds poured down the National Mall toward the Washington Monument, where giant screens and speakers were set up so people could hear and see from a distance.

The crowd’s enthusiastic cheers could be heard from the White House driveway. Harris’ campaign said it was her biggest rally yet. He has already filled stadiums and other venues with his supporters during his rallies. Harris likes to needle Trump about the size of the crowd; It’s a particular preoccupation for the Republican leader, who claimed the campaign had to bus people to fill the gap Tuesday.

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

He warned that Trump is a man driven by grievances, focused on himself and his “enemies list” once he enters the White House. It evoked the founding of the country, when Americans fought for freedom, then quickly moved on to decades of hard-fought civil rights struggles.

“They did not struggle, they did not sacrifice, they did not sacrifice their lives to see us give up our basic freedoms. “They didn’t do this just to see us bend to the will of another petty tyrant,” he said. “This is the United States of America, we are not a tool for the schemes of wannabe dictators.”

A few minutes before Harris’ speech, Biden was on a campaign call. a comic book A person who calls Puerto Rico trash Trump rally last weekend. “I see the only garbage floating out there are his supporters,” the president said.

He had joined a national call organized by the advocacy group Voto Latino. Biden urged those attending 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 remarks were quickly embraced by Republicans who said he was denigrating Trump supporters; This was distracting Harris from trying to reach GOP voters.

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

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

The event is designed as a campaign finale aimed at making clear voters’ preferences next week. But this is far from Harris’ last campaign event. It will hit all the key battleground states as it makes its final push to voters.

He 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 aims to gather voters in many countries different demographic groups in the hope that a vote here and there could lead to victory in a tight race with Trump.