AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Tonight, Vice President Harris delivered her closing argument. It was at the same spot in Washington, D.C., where her opponent, former President Trump, spoke on January 6, 2021, ahead of the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Tonight, Harris said it is time to turn the page.
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VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: We have to stop pointing fingers and start locking arms. It is time to turn the page on the drama and the conflict, the fear and division. It is time for a new generation of leadership in America.
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CHANG: NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid was watching it all and joins us now. Hi, Asma.
ASMA KHALID, BYLINE: Hi there. It's good to be with you.
CHANG: Good to be with you. OK, so first, I have to ask you about the location of the speech because, you know, it's far from any swing state. Can you just explain why Harris wanted to be in Washington, D.C. tonight to make her pitch?
KHALID: Yeah, I mean, the location was a deliberate choice to make a clear contrast with her opponent, Donald Trump. Her campaign has really been trying to zero in on the idea that Trump is a threat to democracy. And that is where the Vice President started her remarks tonight.
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HARRIS: We know who Donald Trump is. He is the person who stood at this very spot nearly four years ago and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election.
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KHALID: And this location was also about symbolism, about having tens of thousands of people in the crowd waving American flags and USA signs as Harris spoke with the White House illuminated behind her. You know, some Democrats worry that folks have forgotten what the Trump presidency was like, and they want to put the most extreme things that Trump did front and center.
CHANG: And Asma, would you say that this idea that Trump is a danger to democracy - was that the central message of Harris' remarks tonight?
KHALID: It was certainly a major message but not the only one. I mean, this was a sweeping speech. In some ways, it reminded me of the remarks that she gave at the Democratic Convention, but with a different goal tonight. At this point with just a week left of voting, she's trying to reach that tiny sliver of still undecided voters. And so she's trying to make this a referendum on Trump. And at one point she gestured behind her at the White House and said that in less than 90 days, either she or Trump will be in the Oval Office and said that on Day 1, Trump would walk in with an enemies list. She said she intends to walk in with a to-do list.
CHANG: OK, so what's on that to-do list? Did she spell it out?
KHALID: She tried to make an affirmative case for herself tonight. She said that even though she's been the vice president the last few years, her priorities would be different than when Biden came into office. She said that the biggest challenge in the country right now are high costs. And she spoke about how she would work to lower them with things like a federal ban on price gouging and an expanded child tax credit. She also talked about housing and home health care, and she criticized Trump's central economic vision of cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy, as well as his idea of increasing tariffs across the board, which she described as a national sales tax.
CHANG: Well, Trump has also been campaigning tonight, right? Any response from him to Harris' message?
KHALID: Well, he's been in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and he said that Harris would raise taxes and highlighted his own measures to cut costs. He also spoke about an issue that he often leans into, and that is border security and immigration. I'm sure, Ailsa, you know that he's been dealing with some backlash recently from comments that a comedian made at his rally on Sunday, disparaging comments about Puerto Rico and Latinos. Allentown interestingly is a majority Latino city. And tonight, Trump had several Puerto Rican supporters address the crowd trying to help him do some damage control with that community.
CHANG: One week to go. That is NPR's Asma Khalid, who will be busy the entire remaining week and beyond. Thank you so much, Asma.
KHALID: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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