Harris to give closing remarks in Washington, Trump in New York

Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen the Ellipse in Washington DC as the venue for her campaign’s closing argument on Tuesday as former President Donald Trump returns to New York, his former hometown, for his final pitch.

Harris’s choice of the Ellipse on the ground of the US Capitol, which is home to the US Congress, is intended to serve as a reminder to American voters of a rally Trump addressed there on January 6, 2021.

From the rally, his supporters had marched on to the US Capitol in a bid to prevent a joint sitting of the two chambers from certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election and the next president.

“On Tuesday, October 29, with just one week until election day, Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver a major closing argument address in Washington on the Ellipse,” the campaign said in a coverage guidance for media on Saturday.

Harris will use the venue to reinforce one of her campaign’s key issues, that the former president presents a threat to democracy and the constitution. She called him a “fascist” in a recent town hall hosted by CNN.

The former president has bristled at being called a threat to democracy and has blamed these allegations as the reason for the two assassination attempts on him.

“They’re saying I’m a threat to democracy,” he has said. “They would say that as it is the standard line, just keep saying it, and you know that can get assassins or potential assassins going. That’s a terrible thing … Maybe that bullet is because of their rhetoric.”

Trump’s own closing argument later Sunday is likely to reinforce key issues of his campaign — economy and immigration. But the choice of venue is interesting — Madison Square Garden, the stadium that is known to host major sporting events, concerts and in 2014 a rally addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“This epic event, in the heart of President Trump's home city, will be a showcase of the historic political movement that President Trump has built in the final days of the campaign,” the Trump campaign said in an announcement on Friday.

Trump was born and raised in New York City and lived and thrived there until he moved to Washington DC after his election in 2016. After leaving the White House in January 2021, he has lived in his Mar-a-Lago club resort in Palm Beach, Florida.