Vice President Kamala Harris, campaigning in Philadelphia on Sunday, described a stark choice voters face in the presidential election, inviting them to visualize either her in the Oval Office or her opponent, Donald Trump, “stewing over his enemies list.”
Speaking to reporters after an appearance at a Black church in West Philadelphia, Harris reiterated an argument she has been making of late that the election comes down to a binary choice between two candidates with vastly different conceptions of presidential power and responsibilities.
“Just imagine the Oval Office on Jan. 20,” she said, invoking the date that the next president will be inaugurated. “It’s going to be one of two people. It’s going to be Donald Trump or me.”
She held a rally at a community basketball arena.
“The election is here and the choice Philly is truly in your hands,” Harris said during the rally. “The path to victory runs right through all the leaders who are here. Through all of you.”
If voters pick Trump, they’ll be getting a president who is “full of grievance,” she added. “He is full of dark language that is about retribution and revenge. And so, the American people have a choice. It’s either going to be that or it will be me there, focused on my to-do list.”
“We have an opportunity before us to turn the page on the fear and the divisiveness that have characterized our politics for a decade because of Donald Trump,” she said at the rally. “We have the ability to turn the page on that same old tired playbook, because we are exhausted with it, and we are ready to chart a new way forward. And yes, we will be joyful in the process.”
Harris is spending most of the day campaigning in Philadelphia, the biggest Democratic stronghold in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania — which could end up deciding the presidential election.
She visited a barber shop in West Philadelphia to speak with a group of young Black men, a constituency that her campaign has been working hard to energize. Later in the day, went to a local bookstore, a Puerto Rican restaurant and then a community rally at a youth basketball facility.
At the barber shop, she talked about the importance of Black teachers in classrooms.
“You know that the statistics are if a Black child has a Black teacher, by the end of third grade they’re like 13% more likely, more likely to go to college,” Harris said. “If they have had two Black teachers by third grade, something like 30% more likely.”
During the rally, pro-Palestine protesters interrupted at one point. Harris stopped her remarks to address the Israel-Hamas war, saying that now was the time to bring peace to the area and free the hostages.
The trip is her 14th visit to Pennsylvania since she entered the race in July and coincides with a massive get-out-the-vote operation that her campaign has launched.
With 19 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is a must-win proposition for Harris’ campaign. Along with Michigan and Wisconsin, the state is part of the “blue wall” that Democrats have traditionally relied on to reach the magic number of 270 electoral votes. Trump won the state in 2016 in his race against Hillary Clinton, but lost it to Joe Biden four years later.
“Philadelphia is a very important part of our path to victory, and it is the reason I’m spending time here and have been spending time here,” Harris told reporters.
Nnamdi Egwuonwu contributed.
