Every move from the candidates and their allies matters in a race teetering on a knife edge
One hundred days after becoming the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, it was time for Kamala Harris to present her closing argument.
With the White House as her backdrop and tens of thousands of supporters packing the outdoor arena, she set out her stall to the American public.
What she offered was a binary choice; me or him, cohesion or chaos.
“On day one, if elected, Donald Trump will walk in with an enemies list. I will walk in with a to-do list,” she said to huge cheers from the crowd.
The Harris campaign had pointedly picked the Ellipse in Washington DC as the venue for this address. Just beyond the White House’s south lawn, the garden was where Donald Trump spoke on 6 January 2021 before droves of his fans.
Standing in almost the same spot as Ms Harris now was, he made false claims about the election being stolen and urged his supporters to “fight like hell”. At least 2,000 of them, according to the FBI, then stormed the Capitol.
“We know who Donald Trump is, he is the person who stood at this spot four years ago and sent an armed mob to the US Capitol,” Ms Harris said.
There were nods in the speech to reproductive rights, to the economy and immigration. But it is clear that the Harris campaign believes the best way to win over wavering voters in the final week is focusing on the danger, they say, Trump presents to democracy.
“I think she put forward the contrast between the two of them very well,” one man, wearing a camouflage Harris/Walz baseball cap, tells me as he exits the rally.
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What was Kamala Harris’ closing argument?
One of the criticisms levelled at Ms Harris is that she hasn’t defined herself and her policies sufficiently to voters. But some in the crowd bristled at that suggestion.
“I think people will say they don’t know enough about her,” said Mary Laxton, a 70-year-old from the key swing state of Pennsylvania who campaigns for Ms Harris. “But I think for some people, what they really are saying is, ‘I don’t want a woman as president’. I hate to say that, but that’s what I believe.
“She may have started out the gate a little slowly, but she has come on so strong and has been very clear about who she is, what she would do for the US and for all people, especially women.”
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Ms Harris tried to draw a direct contrast with Donald Trump, whose own closing rally at Madison Square Garden was criticised for its hate-filled rhetoric and racist undertones. A comedian who appeared on the stage before Mr Trump spoke described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage”.
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Ms Harris didn’t address the rumbling controversy over Mr Trump’s rally. But from inside the White House just yards away, President Biden waded in on a campaign video call.
“Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage,” he said. “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
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Biden accused of calling Trump supporters ‘garbage’
It recalled comments made by Hillary Clinton in the 2016 campaign in which she described “half” of Mr Trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplorables”.
Mr Biden’s comment was similarly ill-advised. Although he is no longer the nominee, it threatened to overshadow Ms Harris’ big speech. It was also a reminder that with this race teetering on a knife edge, every word and every move from the candidates and their surrogates, has to be measured.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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Will Trump address parliament on UK state visit?
This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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Who is being targeted in Trump’s immigration raids?
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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President threatens to revoke US comedian’s citizenship
Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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Will Trump address parliament on UK state visit?
This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
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