Kamala Harris will urge Americans to turn the page on Donald Trump as she delivers her closing election argument Tuesday at the very spot where her opponent rallied supporters before the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol attack.

As polls heat up a full week before Election Day, the Democratic vice president’s campaign said it had chosen a symbolic site to press its case that the Republican former president is a threat to American democracy.

But amid rumors in the party that she is focusing too much on Trump and not enough on her own policies, a senior campaign official said Harris will also deliver an “optimistic and hopeful” message.

He will address about 20,000 people at the Ellipse, a park outside the White House, where Trump gave an impassioned speech in which he ramped up his baseless claims that he won the 2020 election.

Trump supporters then marched on the Capitol to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s victory, leading to an attack that killed at least five people and injured 140 police officers.

In a statement made by Harris’ campaign, it was stated that the former prosecutor will present “an important closing argument” and “make clear that it is time to turn the page on Trump and chart a new path.”

Trump, who is the oldest presidential candidate in US history at the age of 78, will try to ease the pain of Harris’ big event by making statements at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

He will then rally in blue-collar Allentown, Pennsylvania, perhaps the most important of the seven battleground states expected to decide the election.

Trump made his closing remarks at a mass rally at Madison Square Garden in New York over the weekend; some other speakers here used language widely condemned as racist and sexist.

– Fear of chaos –

The 2024 White House race has already been one of the most divisive races of modern times; Harris and Trump are completely deadlocked as they present two starkly contrasting visions to a deeply polarized country.

Fears of a repeat of the chaos of four years ago remain prevalent in this year’s elections; Trump states that if he wins, he may refuse to accept the result once again.

Trump’s survival of both assassination attempts highlights the violent undercurrents in US society and politics.

Harris vowed in July that America would “not go back” after Biden’s shocking replacement, but she has increasingly focused on Trump’s harsh rhetoric against immigrants and his abortion policy.

In Tuesday’s speech, Harris is expected to reiterate her recent comments that Trump would focus on a “list of enemies” if he returned to the White House, while she would create a “to-do list” to cut costs for Americans.

The first female, Black and Asian-American vice president in U.S. history will rely heavily on visuals of being within sight of the White House, with the campaign describing it as a symbol of presidential strength and unity.

But he will also seek to remind Americans of the dark time around the Jan. 6, 2021, riots, when Trump’s refusal to accept the election results brought the country to the brink of civil war.

A CNN poll released Monday showed that only 30 percent of Americans think Trump will concede defeat this time, while 73 percent think Harris will concede defeat.

Harris’ campaign said she would take her message from the Ellipse speech in the run-up to battleground states in the final week of the election.

Both candidates will continue a grueling schedule in the final days through Nov. 5, sometimes hitting three or more states in one day.

min/hst