Protesters demand Gaza ceasefire at Harris speech in Washington

US pro-Palestine protesters interruptedUS Vice President Kamala Harris’ “closing argument” election speech in Washington D.C. on Tuesday to call for an end to the year-long war on Gaza and a full arms embargo on Israel.

Groups of demonstrators appeared throughout the crowd, with videos on social media capturing chants of “Stop Arming Israel!” and “Arms Embargo Now!”

The protests led by advocacy groups such as DC for Palestine, DCLocal2Global, DMV Dissenters, CODEPINK, ShutdownDC, and the Palestinian Youth Movement reflect growing discontent with Harris’s support for Israel amid its assaults on Lebanon and Gaza.

CODEPINK reported that protesters were swiftly removed by security at the rally.

Harris has refused to pledge an end to arms shipments or to impose conditions on US military aid to Israel if elected, though she has called for a ceasefire.

This stance has raised concerns among Arab, Muslim, and progressive groups, posing a risk to her support in key swing states like Michigan, which has a large Arab American community.

According to a recent YouGov poll, former President Donald Trump narrowly leads Harris among Arab American voters, with 45 percent favouring Trump and 43 percent supporting Harris. 

Harris urges US to turn page on Trump ‘chaos’

Harris urged Americans to write the “next chapter” for their country and reject Donald Trump’s chaos and division during her speech, against the glowing backdrop of the White House.

The Democratic vice president warned against Trump’s lust for “unchecked power” as she addressed a mass rally at the site where her Republican rival riled up a mob before the deadly January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol.

“This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance and out for unchecked power,” she said in the speech, exactly a week before Americans go to the polls in the most dramatic and divisive election of modern times.

But Harris then pivoted to an optimistic vision of the United States’ future, using the setting of the White House lit up against the night behind her as a symbolic pitch to show that she is ready for the presidency.

“America, I am here tonight to say: that’s not who we are,” Harris told the huge crowd of flag-waving supporters.

“Each of you has the power to turn the page, and start writing the next chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.”

Harris’s campaign claimed 75,000 people attended the rally. The number could not be immediately verified, but the crowd was unusually large in an election that has seen heavy enthusiasm on both sides.

‘Chaos and division’

Crowds stretched from the Ellipse, a park bordering the White House grounds where Harris spoke, all the way back to the Washington Monument, the obelisk towering over the National Mall.

Speaking from behind bulletproof screens next to blue signs saying “Freedom,” Harris warned that the election was a choice between a “country rooted in freedom for every American, or ruled by chaos and division.”

Harris reminded the crowd that Trump stood at the same spot nearly four years ago and “sent an armed mob” to the Capitol.

After Trump urged supporters in a speech there to “fight like hell,” many then marched on the iconic domed seat of government to disrupt the certification of President Joe Biden‘s victory, in an assault that left 140 police officers wounded and shocked the world.

But while her speech began with the dramatic attack on Trump, she soon switched to a recap of her detailed plans to help financially struggling middle-class Americans.

She got one of the biggest cheers when she referred to Republicans seeking to curtail abortion, saying the government should not be “telling women what to do with their bodies.”

Harris also addressed one of her main weaknesses — the fact that some voters still see her as a continuation of Biden, who dropped out of the White House race in July.

“My presidency will be different, because the challenges we face are different,” she vowed.

‘Cleansing’

Although there is still a week to go, the Harris campaign cast her speech as a “closing argument” — a nod to her career as a prosecutor.

Harris and Trump remain in a dead heat in the polls, with both desperately trying to convince undecided voters in seven key swing states.

Trump has spent the last two days trying to tamp down a firestorm over his weekend rally in New York’s famed Madison Square Garden, at which a warm-up comedian jibed that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage.”

Biden on Tuesday came under fire for responding to the comments by appearing to call Trump’s supporters “garbage,” although he later said he was referring to the Republican’s rhetoric.

“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” Biden said on a campaign call for Harris.

Trump called the comments “terrible,” and his running mate J.D. Vance said they were “disgusting.”

In a TV appearance, Trump said the comedian who made the comments about Puerto Rico “probably… shouldn’t have been there.”

Earlier, addressing supporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, however, Trump called the New York event a “love fest,” the same phrase he has used to describe the Capitol riot.

The Republican later rallied in blue-collar Allentown, in Pennsylvania, perhaps the most crucial of the seven battleground states that are expected to decide the election — and a city that is home to a large Puerto Rican community.

Fears of a repeat of the chaos from four years ago hang heavy over this year’s election, with Trump repeatedly indicating that he might again refuse to accept the result if he loses.