MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said Tuesday on “The Reid Out” that she was “grateful” for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and her speech at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. because it will “effectively reconsecrate” the ground.
Maddow said, “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. I gotta say, Joy, just as a citizen, I’m grateful that she’s going to the Ellipse.”
She continued, “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.”
Maddow added, “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 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. I will lead you as a president who respects both of those things. I don’t know if it’s going to be a good speech, I don’t know if it will be 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.”
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