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AMY GOODMAN: With the White House in the background, Vice President Kamala Harris addressed close to 75,000 supporters Tuesday at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., in the largest rally of her presidential campaign. The campaign estimated that 75,000 people attended the outdoor rally, which took place at the same spot where Donald Trump spoke January 6, 2021, ahead of the Capitol insurrection.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: But I know many others are still considering who to vote for or whether you’ll vote at all, so tonight I will speak to everyone about the choice and the stakes in this election. Look, 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, an election that he knew he lost. Americans died as a result of that attack. One hundred and forty law enforcement officers were injured because of that attack. And while Donald Trump sat in the White House watching as the violence unfolded on television, he was told by his staff that the mob wanted to kill his own vice president. And Donald Trump responded with two words: “So what?” America, that’s who Donald Trump is. And that’s who is asking you to give him another four years in the Oval Office.
AMY GOODMAN: Kamala Harris went on to describe Donald Trump as a petty tyrant who was, quote, “consumed with grievance and out for unchecked power.” While she spoke, hundreds of protesters gathered to call for a U.S. arms embargo on Israel. Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of CodePink, was removed from Harris’s rally, along with others.
MEDEA BENJAMIN: So, they’re dragging us out while Kamala Harris is talking. And they’re acting like everything is normal, so great. And here she is, part of an administration that has been sending weapons every day to slaughter the children in Gaza, to destroy Lebanon, and now threatening a war with Iran. This is not OK. There is a genocide going on. Wake up. Wake up.
AMY GOODMAN: Kamala Harris’s rally in Washington, D.C., on the Ellipse came two days after Donald Trump held his major rally in Madison Square Garden here in New York, described by The New York Times as a “closing carnival of grievances, misogyny and racism.” One speaker called Harris the Antichrist. Another described Puerto Rico as a, quote, “floating island of garbage.” On Tuesday, Donald Trump spoke at Mar-a-Lago attempting to put a different spin on the event.
DONALD TRUMP: I don’t think anybody has ever seen anything like what happened the other night at Madison Square Garden, the love, the love, the love in that room. It was breathtaking. And you could have filled it many, many times with the people that were unable to get in. But politicians that have been doing this for a long time, 30 and 40 years, said there’s never been an event so beautiful. It was like a love fest, an absolute love fest. And it was my honor to be involved.
AMY GOODMAN: Donald Trump later campaigned in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a majority-Latinx city, home to 34,000 Puerto Ricans, really one of the hearts of Puerto Rican Pennsylvania, where he was met with protests. Overall, Pennsylvania is home to over 450,000 Puerto Ricans.
DONALD TRUMP: We’re setting every record, Hispanics, Latinos. Nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do. Nobody. You know, it’s interesting, because I’ve done more for Puerto Rico than any president by far, nobody close.
AMY GOODMAN: With the presidential election less than a week away, we’re joined in Philadelphia by Marc Lamont Hill, host of Upfront on Al Jazeera English and a nightly YouTube show called Night School. He’s the co-author of Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics and author of the book We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest, and Possibility.
Marc, welcome back to Democracy Now! Why don’t you start off by responding to this really epic event last night? I mean, there was the presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking on the Ellipse, where President Trump spoke January 6, 2021. She spoke in front of 75,000 people. Talk about what she said and didn’t say.
MARC LAMONT HILL: You know, and it’s good to be here, Amy. Thank you for having me back.
It was a really epic event in lots of ways. The size and the scale of the event was extraordinary. Donald Trump has campaigned and bragged about the size of his rallies. He’s used the size of his rallies in a really disturbing way, to be an index of his popularity, his electability and a kind of mandate that he has, despite losing the last election by a lot of votes. So, to see Kamala Harris there certainly showed that she’s not losing steam.
And she made a final case to the American people. And she made the best case that a liberal Democrat can make, which is Donald Trump is worse. Whatever critiques you have of her, she pointed out that democracy might be imperiled by his reelection. She pointed to January 6th, not just that it happened, but that he sort of underwrote it, that he animated, that he inspired it, his cruel indifference to Mike Pence. But she didn’t just talk about January 6th. She talked about the potential impact of a Trump presidency on an everyday working people, the increasing taxes on imports, you know, cutting taxes on billionaires. She did a solid job of pointing out all of the ways that Donald Trump is a threat, all of the ways that women’s reproductive health, reproductive freedom, access to IVF — she went through all the things where Donald Trump is legitimately a worse choice. And for many people out there, particularly this audience, who may be saying, “Look, I hate both of these corporate candidates. I don’t want either of them. I’m disturbed by them,” she sort of made a case for why you might want to think of Trump.
The problem is what you asked me about secondly, which is what she left out. She didn’t talk about, for example, what’s going on in Lebanon. She didn’t talk about what’s going on in Gaza. And the reason she didn’t talk about that is because she can’t make a credible case in that area for how she’s any different than Donald Trump. I disagree very strongly with Senator Bernie Sanders, who says, “Even on Gaza, Trump is worse.” Trump is awful on Gaza. He was awful four years ago, awful eight years ago. He cut UNRWA. He did all the things long before October 7. But there’s no credible case in the midst of a genocide that he would be worse. And if so, it’s a distinction without a difference. I mean, it’s somewhat absurd to say, “Yeah, I have helped underwrite and fund. I’ve been part of an administration that has pushed forward one of the worst atrocities in modern history. But the other guy may have gotten even more people killed.” I mean, it’s a terrible argument.
So, at the end of the day, what we saw from Kamala Harris speaks for itself, but so does what Donald Trump did. When you go to his rallies and you hear the xenophobia, the racism, the calls to violence — the implicit calls to violence, that is — and even the so-called love fest that he depicted was a love fest among xenophobes and racists. It’s a white supremacist love fest. So, at the end of the day, whatever decision voters make, they have to be very clear here that if you vote Donald Trump, if you vote Donald Trump, you are voting for a reenactment of a very, very, very dangerous moment in American history.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Marc, I wanted to ask you — Vice President Harris was in Philadelphia last weekend attending church and later visiting a barbershop to meet with African American men. And there’s been a lot of focus on the supposed shift, especially of Black male voters and Latino males toward Trump. But there’s a recent ABC/Ipsos poll that comes out that essentially says that this isn’t happening, that basically that there’s still sort of the same historic pattern among both African Americans and Latinos in terms of support for a Democratic candidate. I’m wondering your thoughts about this.
MARC LAMONT HILL: Well, yeah, absolutely. First of all, these polls historically have done very poor job of assessing the voting patterns and predicting the voting outcomes of Black people, poor people and other people who are outside of the margin — or, on the margins of mainstream America. But the idea that 30% of Black men were going to vote Trump, 27% of Black men were going to vote Trump was always absurd. And many Black journalists, many Black social scientists, many Black political scientists, in particular, always said that. And as the number drops from 27 to 21, you’re voing to see it come down to Earth, and it’s going to be far closer, as you pointed out, to the traditional numbers. Now, might it go up 3, 4, 5%? Absolutely. It might be a little bit higher. I suspect it will be. But it won’t be anywhere near the astronomical numbers that have been predicted.
And I think that’s problematic to suggest for a couple reasons. One, there is a kind of panic around it that suggested that Black men were these weird, pathological, incomparably patriarchal people who were going to vote against Kamala Harris and vote for Trump because we were these awful people. And I think that’s problematic. And so, the outreach to us from people like President Obama was less, “Hey, here’s how Kamala Harris is a good choice,” and more like, “Hey, act right.” It was part of a long pattern of President Obama chastising Black men rather than appealing to them at the policy level first.
And it also suggests somehow that Democrats are entitled to Black votes. Why aren’t these Black men being good to the party? Why are they abandoning the party? Why aren’t they doing what they’re supposed to do? When, in fact, Black men have been the second most loyal people to the Democratic Party. If anything, they’ve been too loyal. Again, I’m not suggesting that people should vote for Trump. To be clear, never vote for Trump. But I am saying that there has to be a different kind of conversation, and one that, finally, implicates white people.
Democratic presidents don’t win because they get the majority of white people. They haven’t — a Democratic president hasn’t gotten the majority of white voters in a very, very long time. I mean decades and decades and decades. Trump does not win because only 90% of Black men voted or only 88% of Black men voted. Donald Trump wins because white people choose whiteness. Donald Trump will win this election because white people have chosen to close ranks around their whiteness rather than their political interests. When the poor white farmer or the person who’s been pushed out of the labor market decides that they’re going to vote for Trump and his billionaire tax breaks, when they decide that they are going to respond to xenophobia by opting in, when white women — when white women hear Donald Trump’s patriarchy and the vile things he says and still decide to vote for him, they are the ones that are choosing whiteness. They are the ones that are choosing Trump. So, please, for Black people who have always attempted to hold this fragmented democracy together, whatever happens in this election, if Donald Trump wins, it ain’t because of us.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And one sector of the electorate that’s gotten very little attention are Asian Americans, who in 2020 voted 54% for Biden. But the indications are, from those polls that have specifically centered in on the millions of Asian Americans in the country, that there’s a much bigger margin, about 66 to 28% among Asian American and Pacific Islanders for Kamala Harris. I’m wondering your thoughts about how Asian Americans rarely get talked about?
MARC LAMONT HILL: Yeah, I think you’re right. Asian American voters rarely get talked about. And when they do, they get talked about in the aggregate, kind of like we’re doing right now. I mean, to think about what Korean American voters want or Japanese American voters want is very different than to think about what, say, Hmong American voters might want. And when you’re in a place like Wisconsin, if you’re in Milwaukee or you’re in Madison, where there are Hmong populations, where there are Cambodian populations, like there are in, say, South Philadelphia, you’ve got to say, “OK, how can we reach these voters? How can we understand their needs, their economic plights, their social trajectories?” They’re all very different. But very often when we say Asian, we’re lumping in a whole lot of people who have different ideologies, beliefs, etc. We sometimes do that with Latinx voters, as well, but I think we do it even more so with Asian American voters. And I think that’s why many politicians, not just at the national level, but at the local level, miss the mark.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to President Biden’s comments, facing criticism after speaking during a Voto Latino get-out-the-vote call online, condemning racist comments made about Puerto Rico at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I don’t know the Puerto Rican that — that I know, or Puerto Rico where I’m — in my home state of Delaware, they’re good, decent, honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, Trump and his backers seized on Biden’s remarks, comparing them to Hillary Clinton in 2016 calling Trump supporters a “basket of deplorables.” On social media, President Biden clarified. He said his demonization — this is what Biden said, referring to Trump — “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say.” The Biden team went on to say he was talking about the supporters who spoke at the Madison Square Garden rally. But, Marc Lamont Hill, if you can respond to this? You are in Philadelphia. You’re in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. There is this question and a whole controversy that is swirling about in the Kamala Harris campaign, which is what to do with Biden over these last few days. He is, quote, “misspeaking” a lot. They’re going to send him to Scranton, of course, his hometown, where he can appeal to white blue-collar workers. But they are concerned about his gaffes and that we in the media are even talking about this, when she has 75,000 people at her closing argument address. Talk about the importance of Pennsylvania and also Biden’s role in all of this, including what’s happening in Gaza.
MARC LAMONT HILL: Yeah, first, yeah, Pennsylvania absolutely is of the utmost importance. We saw that both in 2016 and in 2020. I’m not sure that either candidate or either campaign is comfortable that they can win this election if they don’t feel like they’re going to be competitive in Pennsylvania. Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 largely because of a very, very, very — I’m talking about razor thin loss in Pennsylvania. I believe it was 55,000 votes or something in that neighborhood. And so, Pennsylvania is of the utmost importance.
I think sending Joe Biden to Scranton is ideal. The only two places right now that I would send Joe Biden are Scranton and Delaware, and Delaware obviously isn’t really a contested state. So, I think it’s OK to send him to Scranton, because he has a huge margin of error in his hometown. Other than that, I think the Harris campaign would be very wise to leave Joe Biden off of the campaign trail. He was someone who was gaffe-prone in his prime. But at this moment, the very reason why he’s not the nominee is the reason why he shouldn’t be on the campaign trail, and that is, I’m not sure he’s up for the challenge. Many people are at his age. Many peoople are at this level of his career in terms of being, you know, sort of emeritus-level presidents. They should be on the campaign trail. But Joe Biden is in a unique position.
I think that he, after taking the victory lap this summer, should step to the side and allow Kamala Harris to move forward. Also, any critiques of Joe Biden at this moment don’t need to be assigned to Kamala Harris. She’s already been subjected to sufficient scrutiny. I don’t think bringing Joe Biden on helps at all. And then, for those people who are attempting to convince themselves that Kamala Harris is different than Joe Biden on some key policy issues, particularly foreign policy issues, I don’t think bringing Genocide Joe back out in the midst of an ongoing war and an escalation in Lebanon is something that will do well for voters. Again, that’s not to suggest that they’re different than each other, but if I’m a campaign strategist, I don’t want to remind people of their similarities.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Marc, I wanted to ask you about the day after Election Day next week, because back in the last presidential election, a year before the election, I warned on this show that my sense was that the Trump people were not going to accept whatever happened that was not in his favor and that there was a real danger of violence and insurrection. My sense is that this time, it’s very likely that we’re not going to know for days what the final results are, and whatever it is, that the Trump people are not going to accept it, except this time I believe what’s going to happen is more localized insurrections in county election boards and at the state level, as the Trump MAGA movement have learned from their failures last time around. I’m wondering if you have a sense whether the progressive or even the traditional Democrats are really prepared for the kind of resistance that they’re going to encounter from Trump’s followers?
MARC LAMONT HILL: Yeah, I mean, first, yes, I think all that’s going to happen. These are deplorable people. Anyone in 2024 that is willing to vote for Donald Trump is deplorable, and it’s a morally indefensible position. And that claim that I’m making is supported by the extraordinary amount of violence that is being promised to be doled out all throughout the country if President — former President Trump becomes reelected President Trump. That is a very, very dangerous proposition. When you look at social media, when you look at the sort of underground worlds where these people often circulate, there are extraordinary promises of violence. And because Donald Trump never just stands up and says, “Hey, I hope that doesn’t happen. I need this not to happen. I demand that it does not happen” — because he doesn’t do that, he gives license to these people to make it happen.
But I don’t think that this is just a problem of liberal Democrats or traditional Democrats or progressives or anybody else. This is the problem of anyone who believes in freedom. Anyone who believes in safety and dignity should be fighting this, should be preventing this. And every one of us should be scared, because, as we saw, even the people who carried the water for Donald Trump for four years, as Mike Pence did — and again, one of the most morally repugnant vice presidencies we could imagine simply for being next to Trump — even though he did all that water carrying, he was disposable to Donald Trump. Donald Trump will allow anyone to fall by the wayside if it benefits him, so no one is safe in a Trump presidency. No one is safe the day after a Trump loss. And I think we need to be very mindful of that and guard ourselves against it. And the very fact that we have to ask ourselves, “Are we safe if Trump loses?” — when was the last time there was a presidential contest, that did not include Donald Trump, where we were literally worried about the status of democracy or the safety of everyday people based on the winner or the loser of the election? We cause a lot of violence around the world, but we’ve never had to deal with that at home in the same way. We should be accountable for both, but my point here is, at the end of the day, only Donald Trump brings that kind of craziness. And it’s a signpost of why maybe, just maybe, he shouldn’t be leading the country.
AMY GOODMAN: Just to talk about the survey that Brennan just did, the Brennan Center, a survey of local election officials across the U.S. found 38% report experiencing threats, harassment or abuse. Fifty-four percent are concerned about the safety of their colleagues, according to this report released by the Brennan Center for Justice. The survey of more than 925 local election officials in February and March also found 62% are concerned about political leaders attempting to interfere with how election officials do their jobs. Thirteen percent of local officials who responded said they’re concerned about facing pressure to certify results in favor of a specific candidate or party.
Marc Lamont Hill, we want to thank you for being with us. We hope you’ll join us for our election night special, which is on —
MARC LAMONT HILL: Absolutely.
AMY GOODMAN: — Tuesday night at democracynow.org or on your favorite public television or community radio station. We’ll be broadcasting from 8 p.m. Eastern to midnight and the next morning from 8:00 in the morning Eastern to 10:00, a two-hour special on November 6th. Marc Lamont Hill, host of Upfront on Al Jazeera English and a nightly YouTube show called Night School, also professor of anthropology and urban education at the City University of New York Graduate Center.
Coming up, we look at how Republicans are blanketing the airwaves with transphobic ads ahead of Election Day. If people are watching sports, baseball or football, the Republicans are spending tens of millions of dollars in anti-trans ads. We’ll speak to Imara Jones, host of The Anti-Trans Hate Machine podcast. Stay with us.
