Harris offers Americans a chance to turn the page on Trump — without mentioning him

 

Harris offers Americans a chance to turn the page on Trump — without mentioning him

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday, November 4. 

Elizabeth Frantz/REUTERS/REUTERS

 Her message has been consistent, but Kamala Harris has in the closing days of the presidential race dropped two notable words from her stump speech: Donald Trump.

The former president’s name was again absent from the vice president’s speech on Monday night in Pittsburgh, where she again promised voters a clean break from the discord of the Trump era in American politics. It was a notable switch in rhetoric for the vice president, who had mentioned Trump’s name so often in previous versions of her stump speech that the Republican’s campaign had put together a video compilation of Harris saying “Donald Trump” that he often played at rallies.

“We have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of politics driven by fear and division. We are done with that,” Harris said. “We’re done. We’re exhausted with it.”

That promise has been threaded through her campaign, usually implied but increasingly delivered in explicit terms.

“It can be easy to forget a simple truth,” Harris said in Washington. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

The way it is, she said in Pittsburgh, is not so good.

“So much about these last several years has been about trying to make people point their fingers at each other,” Harris said, “to have Americans point their fingers at each other, to try and make people feel alone or feel small.”

Vice President Kamala Harris appears during a campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday, November 

 Her message has been consistent, but Kamala Harris has in the closing days of the presidential race dropped two notable words from her stump speech: Donald Trump.

The former president’s name was again absent from the vice president’s speech on Monday night in Pittsburgh, where she again promised voters a clean break from the discord of the Trump era in American politics. It was a notable switch in rhetoric for the vice president, who had mentioned Trump’s name so often in previous versions of her stump speech that the Republican’s campaign had put together a video compilation of Harris saying “Donald Trump” that he often played at rallies.

“We have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of politics driven by fear and division. We are done with that,” Harris said. “We’re done. We’re exhausted with it.”

That promise has been threaded through her campaign, usually implied but increasingly delivered in explicit terms. Supporters gathered at the Carrie Blast Furnaces, a former home to US Steel, sounded ready to take her up on the offer. It was one of the driving forces of her convention speech this summer in Chicago and at the Ellipse in Washington, DC, last week, where she delivered one of about a dozen closing arguments – most of them in battleground states – over the last few days of the campaign.

“It can be easy to forget a simple truth,” Harris said in Washington. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

The way it is, she said in Pittsburgh, is not so good.

“So much about these last several years has been about trying to make people point their fingers at each other,” Harris said, “to have Americans point their fingers at each other, to try and make people feel alone or feel small.”

President Joe Biden’s name was, like Trump’s, missing from Harris’s speech. But her point was clear enough. Even after four years out of the Oval Office, Trump’s capture of the American political narrative – and tone – remains firmly in place.

“America is ready for a fresh start,” Harris said, before again contrasting Trump’s political “enemies list” with her policy-laden “to-do list.”

Still, Harris was careful to frame her candidacy as one with momentum – both in the race to 270 electoral votes and, in a more profound way, toward a more kind and compassionate country.

“Ours is not a fight against something. It is a fight for something,” Harris said. “It is a fight for the future.”

Harris has one more rally scheduled for Monday night, a capstone event in Philadelphia on the famous steps of the city’s art museum.