Vice President Kamala Harris recalled her experience at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 during the presidential debate Tuesday.
“On that day, the president of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our nation’s capital, to desecrate our nation’s Capitol. On that day, 140 law enforcement officers were injured, and some died. And understand the former president has been indicted and impeached for exactly that reason,” Harris said.
Harris then made a point to contextualize the Jan. 6 insurrection with Trump’s defense of white nationalists at the 2017 Unite the Right Charlottesville rally as “fine people” and his statement to “stand back and stand by” when discussing the Proud Boys, a right-wing extremist militant group.
Harris made a final plea for Americans to “not go back” to the chaos of Jan. 6, warning that Trump has already said that “‘there will be a bloodbath if the outcome of this election is not to his liking.'”
“For everyone watching who remembers what January 6th was, I say we don’t have to go back. Let’s not go back. We’re not going back. It’s time to turn the page,” Harris said. “If that was a bridge too far for you, well, there is a place in our campaign for you to stand for country, to stand for our democracy, to stand for rule of law and to end the chaos and to end the approach that is about attacking the foundations of our democracy because you don’t like the outcome.”
Harris and Trump met for their first and possibly only debate on Sept. 10, hosted by ABC in Philadelphia. Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee this summer after Biden gave a troubling debate performance in June, increasing calls for him to drop out of the race.
According to the latest PBS News/NPR/Marist poll, more than two-thirds of Americans say they will watch all or most of the debate. While many voters have already made up their minds, 14 percent of Americans say the debate will have a great impact on which candidate they choose.
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