tonight, after weeks of celebrity appearances, get out the vote appeals, and more than 50 million early votes already cast, and with just seven days to go until the polls close for good on the 2024 election, all eyes are on washington, d.c. where kamala harris will make her closing argument. good evening, everyone. we begin "the reidout" tonight live in washington where vice president harris will very shortly give a major speech, perhaps the most important of her career. billed as her closing argument in the 2024 election. in a very pointed location. i think it's fair to say that no one knows more about closing arguments than kamala harris. remember, before she was the democratic presidential nominee, before she was vice president and a u.s. senator and california attorney general, she

was a prosecutor. it was how she became a rising star in democratic politics. when you look at hr bio, her tenure as a prosecutor is what stands out. it's what she emphasizes when she says her only client in her early career was the people. and thanks to the show "law and order" we know some things about how the scales of justice balance and teeter in prosecutors' hands. >> the legal drama with its iconic opening title and sequence and 20 seasons worth of content has shown millions of americans how prosecutors go about making deals and plea bargains. the preparation of witnesses and evidence, and perhaps most dramatically, how they land their closing arguments when representing the people. when you prosecute a case, generally what you do is make your opening argument, lay out the facts, then you present your evidence at trial. then in the closing, you explain

to the jury how the evidence backs up the narrative you laid out in the opening. it's something vp harris has done multiple times in her career, including as a presidential candidate. when officially announcing her presidential campaign, she spelled it out like this. >> the freedom not just to get by but get ahead. the freedom to be safe from gun violence. the freedom to make decisions about your own body. we choose a future where no child lives in poverty, where we can all afford health care, where no one is above the law. >> you can't be a prosecutor without talking about the law, and harris is making her closing arguments in a very significant place. the ellipse in washington, d.c. the last time you probably even saw the ellipse was this stark moment in january 2021. >> after this, we're going to walk down, and i'll be there with you, we're going to walk down. we're going to walk down, anyone

you want, but i think right here, we're going to walk down to the capitol, because you'll never take back our country with weakness. you have to show strength. and you have to be strong. and we fight. we fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. >> trump incited a mob to ransack the capital on january 6th, 2021. he refers to convicted rioters as hostages. he calls what you see on the screen a day of love. more than 1500 people have been criminally charged by federal prosecutors in connection with breaching the capitol that day. trump also faces federal and state criminal charges for trying to subvert the election. but kamala harris is not coming to washington tonight to relitigate january 6th. she's coming to litigate trump and his vision for the country versus her own. she's doing it in a way that is historic, significant, and fitting really. it's a reminder of what happened that day under very different

leadership and how we can avoid repeating it. because it won't just be a repeat. the next time will be much, much worse. joining me now are my colleagues and friends, rachel maddow and chris hayes. thank you both for being here. coming in a little early, doing a little early duty, rachel, i want to go to you first. what do you think of the history being made tonight, the choice by vice president harris to go to the ellipse to make this speech, and what you expect to hear? >> i don't know about what i expect to hear. we all know there's excerpts around. we have been told by the campaign what to expect in terms of overall themes. we have seen her on the stump doing so many interviews, so many appearances, so many rallies. we can kind of surmise contextually what she might say tonight, but i do think tonight is different. and i gotta say, joy, just as a citizen, i'm grateful that she's going to the ellipse. so that a new big political important thing happens on the

ellipse to supplant what our memory is of that place. to have had, as you just showed it, to have had a u.s. president standing there, you know, in that historic place with a backdrop of the white house, in front of a crowd, telling them to go physically menace one of the branches of government in order to subvert the constitution and install him without benefit of the people's consent, that ought to be wiped off the historical timeline, and she could have given the speech tonight from anywhere. she could have done this on the steps of the lincoln memorial, a lot of places that would have a lot of historical significance, but to do it there is to say, you know what, it was not the proper -- it was not a proper point in american history to have a president here doing that. we are going to move on and do something different than that. this place will mean something different. we will effectively reconsecrate this ground for the constitution and for this republic, and i

will lead you as a president who respects both of those things. and i just -- i don't know if it's going to be a good speech, a turning point in the campaign, but i'm just grateful as a citizen that a big speech from the ellipse is going to mean something different than the way he left it. >> yeah, and chris, reclaiming that ground i think is a big reason to be there, right, in this moment, because i still can remember, i can still take myself right back to that day of being on tv with you both, with you guys, and all day folks were on tv talking about the trauma that was produced in that exact same space. because donald trump, who was at the time a sitting president of the united states, used that hallowed ground, that ground that was built by enslaved hands that has represented so much for our country, and he used it to launch the insurrection. the speech he gave from there was if you don't fight, you're going to lose your country. i'll walk with you, and we know now from the january 6th commission that he wanted to get

into the car, into the beast and drive over there, so he could be a part of the insurrection and stage the coup in person. like, that's the memories i think we now have of the ellipse, which has meant so much more in our history, and she's reclaiming that ground tonight. that seems pretty significant. >> i think it is. i hadn't really thought of those terms until rachel was saying it. it's amazing how i have a pejorative association with the word ellipse because the only context we utter it is the site for this essentially kind of early stages of the insurrection. the other thing i think that is striking, and this has been true of kamala harris for the 100 days she's campaigned as a nominee, one of the challenges in the modern media environment is just attention. and this is the thing that donald trump has a sort of feral genius for. it's been the thing, his sort of competitive advantage, to be honest. and when the harris campaign has created these moments of focus, these kind of set pieces when

she was giving her speech at the dnc and when she had the debate and maybe tonight, when she has been able to sort of create all eyes on her and get focus, she has delivered. she has been an incredibly effective communicator in those situations. part of the struggle i think is in the modern media environment, getting those moments of focus. i think it's a really smart campaign decision to take a big swing here. we saw in some ways a sort of the kind of double-edged sword that is donald trump's attention session with msg, because that got a lot of attention, but it was pretty negative attention rightly so. just insult comic going after everyone from palestinians to jewish folks to puerto ricans to black people. there was a joke about travis kelce wanting to kill taylor swift. i keep discovering new disgusting things that were said, but where she has had the ability in this fractured media environment to focus, the

attention of the nation, we have seen it in the polling, we have seen it in the reaction, that she has really responded to those moments, and people have responded to her ability to communicate in a really strong way. in fact, they want another debate for exactly that reason. and donald trump didn't for exactly that reason. in some ways she did the town hall, this is another chance to sort of remind everyone who these two individuals are and what their contrasting visions are. >> it is interesting. she really has the campaign, rachel, has done a really good job of competing for that attention economy. she's done these sort of iconic events. obviously being in houston, hometown of beyonce, and two-thirds of destiny's child. barack obama did that and did it in a similar way of using celebrity in a really specific way, but to me, she's doing something in addition to that. i mean, there is a simultaneous, she's going to do an event tomorrow night, events in georgia with more celebrities. she's doing celebrity. at the same time, i covered her

2019 campaign when she launched in 2019. and it's interesting, the themes were the same. she launched as kamala harris for the people. her first ad said she's going to prosecute donald trump. she talked about him being lawless, and she being the candidate of law and order. and so there's a way in which she's co-opted a lot of themes that are not normally associated with democrats. and law and order is one of them. she's used that prosecutorial theme again in this campaign but to incredibly dramatic and successful effect. like, she really has captured the entertainment and the information economy as well as obviously, you know, fought to weirdly enough that she would have to fight to even with the polls, whose somebody's first job in politics was president of the united states and job before that was being on "the apprentice," but such is the world for women and particularly women of color. but she's done a good job of that, and this feels like an opportunity to do it again.

>> yeah. i think that's a good point. and i think that what chris was saying about competing for attention, first of all, chris has a very, very good book on that exact topic coming out that i highly recommend to everybody. it's great, one of the best things i have read in years. but at this point and the way it applies to this moment, i feel like it's actually just really illuminating. why is it that trump can capture so much attention while not doing anything valuable? he captures attention because he's very transgressive and does incredibly offensive stuff all the time, and is sort of wild and feral and out of control, so therefore, you have to pay attention to him. kamala harris is a disciplined politician who is proposing a moderate progressive agenda for the country without doing anything crazy. nobody ever fears that she's going to bite the head off a bat or she's going to curse somebody

out or anything crazy is going to happen. to get attention, she has to do big events, but she does rise to them. her nominating speech at the dnc, flawless. her debate performance, flawless. the roll out of her campaign with the big a-list celebrities, they have been flawless. tonight, they have created this event by doing it at the ellipse, by having to tens of thousands of people, timing it one week from election night when everything is tied, i just think they have run a good campaign. they understand the attention economy. and she rises to big moments, and this is one she made, and i think it's worth our attention tonight because of that. >> and just one more thing. i think one of the -- one of the tensions here, and we have seen it in every democrat that's run against trump going back to 2016, is the fact that he's abhorrent, he's personally so, so repellent in so many ways, such a person of such low and

poor character, that his aspirations are so flatly authoritarian and antidemocratic and he wants to cut taxes for billionaires and is proposing a 20% sales tax on all imported goods. it can be hard to manage between those two messages. one of the things i think we're seeing interestingly and smartly, the paid ads from the harris campaign are all in that latter category. they are abortion, tax cuts for billionaires versus tax cuts for middle class people. $25,000 for a new home, $6,000 child tax credit, going after grocery price gouging. the earned media, the event messaging we're seeing is the guy is obviously a threat to democracy. he tried to overthrow the constitutional republic. it's a smart way to have two channels for the two messages because some voters respond more to one or the other, but they're doing a very good job of

multitasking. they have these different channels because if you look at the ads, the ads don't talk about january 6th, they don't talk about him in authoritarian really in the way that this speech i imagine will. i think it's a pretty smart way of dealing with a messaging tension that has been a difficult one for democrats to reconcile all the way going back to 2016. >> yeah, and to that very point, and those are really great points to bring up. i'm going to bring them up right now with somebody who should know. we're going to bring in michael tyler, communications director for the harris/walz campaign. thank you for being here. talk about that just a little bit, because the place where vice president harris is speaking has so much resonance, and there are so many negative memories that come from there because of 2021. donald trump made it iconic, or anti-iconic in a frightening way because we all watched what happened when he was at the ellipse. talk about the balance of being

there, using that moment to try to erase or at least reduce the strength of that memory and replace it with something better and something more forward leaning, and also talking about what happened in 2021 in that space. >> yeah, thank you so much for having me. listen, you all were talking about this earlier this evening. we all remember the harm that happened on the day of january 6th. tonight, you're going to see something very, very different. you have over 75,000 people who are gathered on this very same spot who are gathered here because they understand that in kamala harris you have somebody who is providing americans with an opportunity to fundamentally turn the page on the entire donald trump era of politics. one that has been defined by hatred, by division, by violence, by harm, not just on january 6th but the harm that donald trump caused throughout his entire presidency. whether it was banning abortion by overturning roe v. wade, or cutting taxes for the rich at

the expense of middle class and working class families. everything he did throughout his presidency. she's going to spend most of her time laying out her vision for where she wants to take the country, representing a new generation of leadership, speaking to the american people about what she wants to do to lower costs, for example, how to restore women's reproductive rights, to offer common sense solutions for the things that the american people are actually clamoring for. on january 20th, one of two people is going to be sitting in this building behind us. it's either going to be donald trump with his enemies list or vice president kamala harris as president of the united states walking into the oval office every single day with her to-do list for the american people. that's what she's going to talk about tonight. it's what the undecided voters are wanting to hear and what she's going to deliver tonight and carry to the battleground states for the remainder of this campaign. >> let's talk about the situation of undecided voters. i mean, donald trump today had to explain that he is not a nazi. when you are having to assert

that you're not a nazi, you're probably already losing the argument regarding that. he did, you know, you really could call a pretty straight ahead send-up of a 1939 nazi rally at madison square garden in which puerto rico was called a pile of garbage. he's now having to do clean-up on aisle 5 for that. a million people died due to covid. he lied directly to the american people about covid resulting in the economy collapsing and a million americans no longer being with us. i could go on. and then you add to that, michael, the fact that he had no political experience going into the presidency, he was just a television celebrity. first job in politics was president of the united states. kamala harris has been a prosecutor, she's been a d.a., she's been attorney general of the entire state of california, she's been a united states senator, and vice president. and yet, you have people saying, i don't know, is she ready for this? i need to hear more specifics. i need to hear more about her program. as if they have ever heard of

any of the specifics that presidential candidates are running on with george w. bush, it was i want to have a beer with him, no one asked. what do you all make of the fact that she's gotten this far and is still essentially in a statistical tie with someone that had to explain that he's not a nazi? >> yeah, well, i'll say a couple things to that. number one, we have always expected this to be a very close and tight race. as all modern presidential campaigns are. this is a margin of error race for us. that means it's going to come down to margin of effort. that's why when we leave here, the vice president is going to crisscross the battleground states. the work is going to continue throughout the rest of this week. as it related to undecided voters, these are the people largely who have still not voted in the early vote period. for them, in an increasingly fragmented and fractured media environment, it is about thesis moments that break through. i do think that madison square

garden unfortunately for donald trump did in fact break through. it was supposed to be his closing argument. i'm not quite sure the half million puerto ricans in pennsylvania agreed with what was said in his closing argument. i think tonight you're going to see something that's fundamentally different. not about hatred, not about division, because what you also did not hear at madison square garden was a single solution for how to improve the lives of the american people. that's what you'll hear tonight from the vice president. she's going to go in dept into the work she's going to do on behalf of the american people. she's going to let people know it's possible to have leadership that sees you, that understands your lived experience and is going to work their ass off every day to improve your lives. that's what tonight is about and that's what we're going to take on the road for next week of this campaign. >> michael tyler, communications director for the harris/walz campaign, thank you very much. more in a moment with rachel and chris, as we await the start of vice president kamala harris'

historic speech, giving her closing argument in this presidential campaign from the ellipse across from the white house. stay with us.

all right, rachel and chris are back with me. rachel, talk a little bit about that. we asked michael tyler about the statistical tie. i feel like this election is going to tell us a lot about america's tolerance for autocracy, tolerance for insurrection, tolerance for mass death. i mean, a million people dead from covid. tolerance for the withdrawal of the rights of half the population to control over our own bodies. the extremity of donald trump's past performance and his proposals, you know, eviscerating the constitution, unleashing the police, you name it, what's in project 2025. the fact that that is not such a deal breaker that this is a run-away for vice president harris, i think confound a lot of people. does it confound you, and what

do you make of it? >> in the -- over the course of my lifetime, we have stopped having landslide presidential elections. no matter the contrast in competence or, you know, basic offerings from the two candidates. we have become a party that -- we have become a country that is polarized along party lines. in a way that is very, very, very predictable in every race at the national level seems to start at 50/50 and varies very little from that. maybe it was always going to be that way, but i think what michael tyler said there about how this is a margin of error election and therefore a margin of effort election is very right. it's not just a slogan. it's going to come down to who runs a better campaign, who does better get out the vote, and who honestly handles the planned chaos from the republican side better. i mean, steve bannon got out of prison today and started talking about how 2020 was stolen and how they're not going to let it

happen this time. donald trump and speaker johnson are talking about the little secret they have in terms of how they think trump is going to do so well because of their little secret which they're not telling us about until after the election. the effort here is going to involve traditional get out the vote stuff, traditional campaigning stuff, traditional discipline from the candidates, but it's also going to involve a kind of civic combat to try to make sure the way the american people vote is respected by every level of the process. from counties to states to the congress. and ultimately to inauguration day on january 20th. so this is -- it's just incredibly hard work. it's going to just take nothing more than incredibly hard work to get this over the finish line, and the finish line may very well be in late january and not on tuesday. >> chris, it really kind of blows my mind a little bit that on the one hand, you have literally generals that worked

for donald trump, hiss longest serving chief of staff, john kelly, general john kelly, and general mark milley who was the joint chief of staff chair, both saying out loud, he is a fascist. saying that he wants to take this country in a fascist direction. that he wants to rule -- that he wants generals like hitler's generals. then on the other hand, you have an argument about whether people think, oh, i might vote for him because i think i'm going to get a stimmy. a stimulus check. these are such disparate arguments that they don't feel like they should be happening in the same election. >> i'm with you, when i look back at donald trump's approval rating say a week after january 6th, when it hit its sort of all-time low around 38%. you know, i think if you said to me, what do i think the polling should be, i would say something around that. you know, honestly, like 40%, sure. sort of 60/40 election. it's not that and it's not that for a bunch of very complicated reasons. part of them structural, part of

them having to do with the fact if you look around the world, that incumbent parties that got through covid and then the ballot opposed have gotten their butts kicked election after election. across the idealogical spectrum, we have seen incumbent parties take it on the chin because people experienced the worst price spike in 30 years. there's some headwinds there, some structural aspects to it as well. the last thing i'll say on this, and this i think is a very confounding variable. i think it helps that everyone knows donald trump is a liar, and buy that, i think it helps donald trump. because i think it means that everything he says is both simultaneously true and not true at all times. everyone can kind of project on to it, so he says everything from the u.s. government is going to pay for your ivf to we're deporting 10 million people, to we're going to get rid of the income tax and replace it with an 1890s version

of the government federal tariffs. where have my feelings on which are more likely to become true and which aren't, but because no one thinks he's telling the truth, everyone understands he's a liar, but it just then allows people to pick and choose. that's why, to bring it back to your question, i do think the testimonials of these individuals really do matter. this isn't what trump is saying. these are people who are with him saying i know the character of the man. i know the character of the man as president of the united states and commander in chief of the armed forces and i'm telling you, these are the genuine deep down ways that he wants to govern. i think that, i hope, cuts through some of that reality distortion that comes with literally every utterance out of his mouth. >> absolutely, stand by one moment. i want to bring in claire mccaskill, former united states senator and msnbc political analyst and somebody who knows vice president harris very well. talk about what's got to be going through her mind tonight as she gives this probably the

most important speech of her life. >> yeah, i think she's ready for it. i think she is looking forward to it, because i think this is going to be a speech very much like her convention speech. you notice all the american flags. you notice freedom displayed prominently. this is about patriotism, the flag, freedom, and love of country. and love of your fellow americans. this is the contrast she's going to bring to this. it is not going to be, i think, one of her more typical rally speeches where she outlines some of the most glaring failures both epically and morally and frankly cognitively of donald trump. but rather we can do this differently. we don't have to be in this kind of messy stew of grievance and hate. we can be the america that makes us all proud. and that's the america that

reflects our values. and i think it's great, and the fact she's going to the ellipse, guys, that's strength. she's not afraid of him. she's not afraid to go to the same place where he encouraged an insurrection to go there and say, we do not have to send that message, and by the way, the voters have a right to decide, and their decision has a right to be respected. >> absolutely. i want to alert everyone you could see a moment ago when you were watching, you saw a couple capitol police officers you have seen on the show, officer harry dunn, sergeant gonell were embracing. you can see members of congress. there goes doug. it is doug time. doug has walked out so we know that vice president harris cannot be far behind. there is doug greeting the crowd, greeting members of congress. you can see lots of usa signs waving. this as claire said is a moment for vice president harris to

assert her vision for america. her vision for unity, for reaching across party lines. she's reached all the way over to the cheneys. that is how far across the aisle she has reached to form a coalition. i will note on the other side, there has been no reunification between the nikki haley candidacy and the trump candidacy so it's a disunified world over there. but on this side, this is not any longer democrats versus republicans. what vice president harris has put forward is those who care about freedom, those who care about unity, those who want to fight against fascism and disorder, chaos, and the lack of community, she's saying that everyone who is on that side is on her side. and she's embraced republicans. she's embraced former members of the january 6th committee who come from the other side of the aisle. and she's embraced people who

formerly voted for donald trump, who voted for him once or even twice, and what she said is that the doors of the church are open, like they say on sunday mornings in church. and that this side is your side. if you are on the side of freedom. claire, that is a message that we don't normally hear in what we think of as base elections but it's the message she's giving us now. >> yeah, and i think it's one that she correctly senses the america wants and needs. she really does want to look after people. he's looking in a mirror and she's looking at you. and when she looks out, she sees how hard it is for people to get along with their neighbors and how hard it is to have discussions at this point. she doesn't want that for our country. she really does want some unity. she really does want us to disagree on policy but not disagree personally. that's what i think she's going to try to convey tonight with a smile on her face and a spring in her step. >> yeah, indeed.

rachel, i'm seeing mitch landrieu there, one of the cochairs of the campaign. it is a different look. a lot of folks, chris will probably agree with this. a lot of folks didn't expect to be standing with the cheneys. yet here we are. >> seriously. i mean, you think about the coalition, what our friend nicolle has described as the pro-democracy coalition, and the breadth of it going from aoc and bernie sanders across to liz cheney and dick cheney and everyone in between. and it raises, you know, it also paints an interesting picture of who is outside that? well, who is on donald trump's side right now? donald trump is what chris was saying earlier about how nobody actually believes that he's telling the truth and that lets people pick and choose what they like of what he says and they say they believe that and don't believe any of the things he doesn't believe.

what that is, big picture, is him promising, i'm going to make politics go away. all political fights are going to be settled forever and you're never going to see news that makes you unhappy or criticism of the people you don't like in politics and the people who make you uncomfortable are going to go away, and there will be no wars and no taxes and i'm going to be in charge forever and this is the end of all the stress in your life. i mean, that is the -- i will do it. not only i alone can fix it, but i will take over everything in american life. jd vance is talking about seizing universities. seizing university endowments. about inflicting pain on businesses that don't toe the line for the great leader. he's talking about an all encompassing strongman authoritarian world. harris is here to say, actually, we think we'll continue being america, and most americans are behind that. >> standing on the other side of

that is the culture. i mean, not only beyonce and taylor swift and ariana grande, but you're seeing bad bunny and every prominent puerto rican star come forward. the culture is standing against what rachel just described, as this dark future. >> yeah, and that's been a transformation. really, that was one of the biggest changes that happened when the switch happened almost 100 days ago, was the difference in the culture, was the difference in the cultural currency and a difference in, you know, look, enthusiasm and vibes and crowds are not the thing fundamentally that one to one transfer to electoral victories. but you would rather have them than not. what you can see is energy and enthusiasm. and getting 75,000 people out on a chilly tuesday night, like that's not nothing. and what you see is they listen to the national anthem here,

there in washington, d.c., you have seen this sort of activation happen. there was a lot of angst, a lot of hand wringing, a lot of concern for much of this year. over the last two or three months, you have seen an activated democratic party, center left coalition, pro-democracy coalition, and progressive base activated. people are hitting doors, doing the text phone banking, giving money. every metric you can look at to see whether that's there, that thing is there, is there. and this is another sort of, i think, in some ways sort of final crescendo to show that, which is to put 75,000 people at an event for a big speech in prime time, with everyone sort of showing up. and i remember, you know, going to barack obama events including one the night before election night in loudoun county, virginia. you know, in a county basically like a county festival area. and there were tens of thousands

of people, and like, that does mean something to a campaign and it means something to political momentum. to be able to turn that many people out. >> yeah, and as we listen to the national anthem, rachel, you know, this whole theme of americana, the right kind of stole from democrats. and tried to take ownership of it. one of the most dramatic changes in this election is the way that vice president harris and tim walz have stolen it back. you hear the chants, usa. >> it helps to be running against somebody who says the u.s. military is terrible and america is terrible, america is a joke. >> and here she comes. vice president kamala harris. sorry. >> here's the opposite of that message from kamala harris. >> indeed. i'm so sorry to rudely interrupt, but kamala harris is now walking out onto the stage. there she is in her signature

look. pretty fabulous pant suit. sartorial splendor, but let's take a listen. ♪♪ ♪♪ >> good evening, america. good evening, everyone. good evening, and thank you for

taking the time out of your busy lives. [ chanting kamala ] thank you. thank you. thank you, everyone. so listen. one week from today, you will have the chance to make a decision that directly impacts your life, the life of your family, and the future of this country we love. and it will probably be the most important vote you ever cast. and this election is more than just a choice between two parties and two different candidates. it is a choice about whether we have a country rooted in freedom

for every american or ruled by chaos and division. [ cheers and applause ] many of you watching have probably already cast your ballots. 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. 140 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. not to focus on your problems

but to focus on his. and donald trump has told us his priorities for a second term. he has an enemies list of people he intends to prosecute. he says that one of his highest priorities is to set free the violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers on january 6th. donald trump intends to use the united states military against american citizens who simply disagree with him. people he calls, quote, the enemy from within. america, this is not a candidate for president who is thinking about how to make your life better. this is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance, and out for

unchecked power. donald trump has spent a decade trying to keep the american people divided and afraid of each other. that is who he is, but america, i am here tonight to say that is not who we are. that is not who we are. that is not who we are. you see, what donald trump has never understood is that e pluribus unum, out of many, one, isn't just a phrase on a dollar bill. it is a living truth about the heart of our nation. our democracy doesn't -- it doesn't require us to agree on everything. in fact, we like good arguments

from time to time. just think of your own family, right? it's not the american way to not have disagreements. we don't shy away from robust debate. in fact, we like a good debate, don't we? we like a good debate. and the fact that someone disagrees with us does not make them the enemy within. they are family, neighbors, classmates, coworkers. they are fellow americans, and as americans, we rise and fall together. america, for too long, we have been consumed with too much division, chaos, and mutual distrust. and it can be easy then to forget a simple truth.

it doesn't have to be this way. it doesn't have to be this way. it is time to stop pointing fingers. 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. and i am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the united states of america. now, look, let me say -- let me say, i recognize this has not been a typical campaign.

even though i have had the honor of serving as your vice president for the last four years, i know that many of you are still getting to know who i am. well, let me tell you. i am someone who has spent most of my career outside of washington, d.c. so i know that not all the good ideas come from here. i am not afraid of tough fights against bad actors and powerful interests. because for decades, as a prosecutor and a top law enforcement officer of our biggest state, i won fights against big banks that ripped off homeowners, against for-profit colleges that scammed veterans and students, against predators who abused women and children, and cartels that trafficked in guns, drugs, and human beings.

and i did this work because for as long as i can remember, i have always had an instinct to protect. there's something about people being treated unfairly or overlooked that frankly just gets to me. i don't like it. it's what my mother instilled in me. a drive to hold accountable those who use their wealth or power to take advantage of other people. the drive to protect hard-working americans who aren't always seen or heard and deserve a voice. and i will tell you that is the kind of president i will be. and look, i'll be honest with you, i'm not perfect. i make mistakes, but here's what i promise you. i will always listen to you.

even -- even if you don't vote for me, i will always tell you the truth, even if it is difficult to hear. i will work every day to build consensus and reach compromise to get things done. and if you give me the chance to fight on your behalf, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way. so look, in les than 90 days, either donald trump or i will be in the oval office. on day one, on day one -- -- on

day one, if elected, on day one if elected, donald trump would walk into that office with an enemies list. when elected, i will walk in with a to-do list. full of priorities of what i will get done for the american people. and i will work with everyone. democrats, republicans, and independents to help americans who are working hard and still struggling to get ahead. i have been honored to serve as joe biden's vice president. but i will bring my own experiences and ideas to the oval office. my presidency will be different because the challenges we face are different. our top priority as a nation four years ago was to end the

pandemic and rescue the economy. now, our biggest challenge is to lower costs, costs that were rising even before the pandemic, and that are still too high. i get it. i still remember our mother sitting at that yellow formika table late at night, a cup of tea in hand, a pile of bills in front of her, trying to make it all work. and i have heard from so many of you who are facing even greater financial pressures. donald trump's answer to you is the same as it was the last time. another trillion dollars in tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations. and this time, he will paythat is imported. think about it. clothes, food, toys, cell phones. a trump sales tax that would cost the average family nearly

$4,000 more a year. and on top of that, you will pay even more if donald trump finally gets his way and repeals the affordable care act. which would throw millions of americans off of their health insurance and take us back to when insurance companies had the chance to deny people with pre-existing conditions. well, we are not going back. >> we are not going back. [ crowd chanting ] t going back [ crowd chanting ] we are not going back. because we also know donald trump would deliver tax cuts to his billionaire donors. i will deliver tax cuts to working people and the middle class. i will make sure that you have a chance not just to get by but

to get ahead. because i believe in honoring the dignity of work. i will enact the first ever federal ban on price gouging on groceries. cap the price of insulin and limit out-of-pocket prescription costs for all americans. i will fight to make sure that hardworking americans can actually afford a place to live. i will never forget hour our mother saved up and -- how our mother saved up and how excited she was to buy our first home. i know that owning a home is not only a measure of financial security, it is about the pride of your hard work.

and as president i will fight to help first-time home buyers with your down payment, take on the companies that are jacking up rents, and build millions of new homes. for years we have heard excuses about why america can't build enough housing. enough with the excuses i am going to cut the red tape and work with the private sector and local governments to speedup building and get it done. and the cost of housing isn't the only financial pressure on middle class families. i have met so many young people who have a natural desire to parent their children well but not always the resources to do it. so, i will fight for a child tax credit to save them some

money. which will also lift american children out of poverty. i will work to lower the cost of childcare which is out of reach for too many working families today. and for too many people in the sandwich generation who are raising a young family and taking care of a parent. juggling all of it is extremely difficult. i took care of my mother when she got sick. cooking food that she had a taste for. finding clothes that would not irritate her skin. and understand, as i do, that care giving is about dignity. it is about dignity. and currently if you need home care and you don't have some money to hire someone you and your family need to deplete your savings to qualify for help.

that is just not right. so we are going to change the approach and allow medicare to cover the cost of home care so seniors can get the help and care that they need in their own homes. now, donald trump has a different approach. he tried to cut medicare and social security every year he was president. look, i believe that when people have worked hard their entire life, they deserve to retire with the benefits they have earned. and i believe in the fundamental freedom of americans to make decisions about their own bodies and not have their government tell them what to do.

i will fight to restore what donald trump and his hand- selected supreme court justices took away from the women of america. that, today, one in three women in america, think about it, one in three live in a state with a trump abortion ban. many with no exception for even rape and incest. the idea that a woman who survives a crime of a violation to her body should not have the authority to make a decision about what happens to her body next, that is immoral. that is immoral. and trump is not done. he would ban abortion nationwide, restrict access to birth control and put ivf treatments at risk. and force states to monitor

women's pregnancies. just google project 2025. and read the plans for yourself. look, i think we all know one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to simply agree the government should not be telling her what to do with her body. not the government. and when congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide, as president of the united states, i will proudly sign it into law. proudly. [ cheers and applause ] t into proudly. [ cheers and applause ] and look, on another subject. politicians have got to stop treating immigration as an issue to scare up votes in an

election. and instead treat it like the serious challenge that it is that we must finally come together to solve. i will work with democrats and republicans to sign into law the border security bill that donald trump killed. when i was attorney general of a border state i saw the chaos and violence caused by transnational criminal organizations that i took on. when i am president we will quickly remove those who arrive here unlawfully, prosecute the cartels and give border patrol the support that they so desperately need. at the same time we must acknowledge we are a nation of immigrants. and i will work with congress to pass immigration reform

including an earned path to citizenship for hardworking immigrants like farmworkers and our dreamers. as commander in chief i will make sure america has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world. donald trump on the other hand has shown his contempt for our nation's heroes. calls them suckers and losers. called a 4 star marine general a quote lowlife. i will always honor, never denigrate the service and sacrifice of our troops and their families. and fulfill our sacred obligation to care for them. i will strengthen, not

surrender, america's global leadership. and i will stand with our friends because i know that our alliances keep american people safe and make america stronger and more secure. look, world leaders they see trump as an easy mark. easy to manipulate. you can believe putin and kim jong un are rooting for him in this election. i will always uphold our security, advance our national interests and ensure the united states of america remain as forever we will be a champion of liberty around the