They danced, they waved American flags, they cheered, and not one of them stormed the Capitol.
Kamala Harris rallied tens of thousands of her supporters on Tuesday evening to note that distinction with her opponent – to remind the rest of the country that only one person in this race had attempted an insurrection.
“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 that he knew he lost,” she said to a crowd that spread back to the Washington Monument.
She chose the site of Donald Trump’s greatest crime to deliver that closing message. It was here at the Ellipse, on January 6 2021, in the shadow of the White House, that Trump urged his devotees to act upon the lies he had told them, to take matters into their own hands and march on the Capitol just a little way up the street.
Four years ago, it would have seemed absurd to imagine that Trump would be a breath away from the presidency again. But such is the division in the United States that the events of that day have all but faded into memory.
Harris was here to remind people what happened that day, and to warn of the threat Trump still poses.
“Americans died as a result of that attack, 140 law enforcement officers were injured. And while Donald Trump sat in the White House watching, as the violence unfolded on television, he was told by staff that the mob wanted to kill his own vice-president. Donald Trump responded with two words: ‘So what?’
"He says one of his highest priorities is to set free the violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers on January 6. Donald Trump intends to use the United States military against American citizens who simply disagree with him. People he calls ‘the enemy from within’. This is not a candidate for president who is thinking about how to make your life better."
I was there on January 6, and watched Trump’s dangerous speech. The mood in the crowd was glum and angry. I followed men dressed for war down Constitution Avenue. They were fired up by Trump’s lies about a stolen election. I wrote at the time that Trump “gave his supporters an outlet for their rage. After telling them that the election had been stolen, that their country and their future was being stolen from them – and they hung on every word – he told them where they could find satisfaction.”
I followed them into the Capitol, watched them beat police officers and journalists and scream for revolution while posing for pictures.
Tuesday evening was different. The crowd was filled with college students with glowing wristbands dancing in sync. They sang to tracks by artists like Alicia Keys. Fascist mobs like the one that stormed the Capitol may know how to chant, but they rarely sing.
These two rallies, four years apart, offer a stark view of America’s divide. It is a divide that goes beyond political disagreement – it is about truth and lies. On January 6 and in the four years since, Trump has not stopped telling the same lie that prompted the attack. Most of his supporters still live in the alternate reality he created for them that day. The spell never broke.
Harris has spent much of her campaign focusing on kitchen table issues like the economy and inflation. But she is closing out her campaign with a stark warning, and a different vision of America.
“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy,” Harris said. “He wants to put them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at my table. And I pledge to be a president for all Americans. To always put country above party and above self.”
The events of January 6 were at the front of many people’s minds as they waited to hear Harris speak, and that was precisely the point.
“We can’t escape thinking about it,” said Luther Jett, a retired educator from the DC area.
“This is where it happened. There’s a poetic justice in having a rally here that promotes truth and decency and freedom,” he said.
Many who came were not old enough to vote when Trump summoned his mob four years ago.
Nini Williams, Nina Igual, Kimora Alexander all study at Howard University, the historic Black college that Harris attended. They see Trump’s return as an existential threat.
“As a Black African American woman, it really impacts the safety of not just me but my siblings. I want them to have an environment where they can be themselves and not be afraid to be who they are,” says Alexander, 18.
“If things don’t go the way I want, my life and safety will be at risk for who knows how long. I’m not willing to put myself and the people I love in danger,” says Igual, 20.
Williams, 19, says January 6 was yet another reminder of the racism Black people still face in society.
“If that was a bunch of Black people going into storm the Capitol it would have been completely different,” she says.
If the polls are to be believed, it is Black women like Nini, Nina and Kimora who will make the difference next week. And people like Sheila Beaman, a resident of DC, who wore a T-shirt with the words: “My Black job is voting.”
The attack on the Capitol was personal to her, she said, both as a resident and a citizen.
“It was unbelievable. I thought I was in a foreign country. A friend called me to tell me and I could not believe what I was seeing. It was horrible,” she says.
But she believes the joy of Harris’s campaign will overcome Trump’s threats to democracy.
“Seeing all these people here today, and knowing that better is coming, yes indeed, I’m overjoyed.”
