As the presidential campaign enters its final week, Laura Barron-Lopez, White House correspondent for the PBS News Hour, got the vote out for Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania, while on assignment on the Ellipse near the White House in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, covering Harris’s “closing argument” speech which Harris delivered later that evening.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Geoff, we expect to hear the vice president lay out her vision and her values, what she would do if she were elected. Specifically, she's going to say that Donald Trump is busy creating an enemies list, while she's creating a quote "to-do list." And based on prepared excerpts of her remarks that we have, she is going to call Donald Trump unstable, obsessed with revenge, and also say that Americans that don't agree with her, she doesn't consider them enemies, and she wants to give them a seat at the table. She's also going to talk about her economic plans and talk about the opportunities that she wants to create for Americans and working Americans.

Bennett: And Laura, considering the message and the choice of location tonight, what does the Harris campaign want folks to take away from her speech this evening?

Barron-Lopez: This location was chosen intentionally, Geoff. We are on the Ellipse, and this is where Donald Trump gave that speech on January 6, 2021. Harris' campaign manager, Jen O'Malley-Dillon, said that they specifically wanted it here to create a stark visualization and remind voters about Donald Trump's speech, where he encouraged his supporters to march to the Capitol to stop certification and overturn the 2020 results. They also like the fact that the White House is going to be directly behind the vice president and that the White House -- that people, Americans, can hopefully visualize the vice president as the next commander in chief.

PBS pounced, naturally, on Donald Trump’s controversial rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

Bennett: And, of course, this comes just days after Donald Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden, which was really marked by racist and sexist comments from some of the speakers. Based on your reporting, has that broken through with voters at all?

The reporter agreed that it was good news for Harris.

Laura Barron-Lopez: It appears that it has, Geoff. The campaign believes that it's breaking through. They say that they are seeing a lot of movement amongst Puerto Rican voters, specifically in states like Pennsylvania. And I also spoke, it's not just the campaign, I also spoke to the owner of a Spanish-language radio station in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where a lot of Latinos, specifically Puerto Ricans, live. And he said that people are calling in angry about the comments made about Puerto Rico and that some that weren't necessarily going to vote are planning on voting now. Why does that matter, Geoff? Because there are more than half-a-million Latinos in the swing state of Pennsylvania, and the vast majority of them are Puerto Rican. So the Harris campaign sees a potential momentum here in a key battleground state, Geoff.

Barron-Lopez had previously ended her campaign trail segments with encouraging words for Democrats in four of the seven swing states of North Carolina, Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia. Is there still time for Wisconsin and Michigan to be the recipient of PBS's taxpayer-boosted partisanship?

This pro-Democratic segment was brought to you in part by BDO.

A transcript is available, click “Expand.”

PBS News Hour

10/29/24

7:07:14 p.m. (ET)

Geoff Bennett: Tens of thousands of people are expected to be in attendance on the National Mall tonight, according to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.

And our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, is there at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., ahead of Vice President Harris' closing argument.

So, Laura, what can we expect to hear from the vice president tonight?

Laura Barron-Lopez: Geoff, we expect to hear the vice president lay out her vision and her values, what she would do if she were elected.

Specifically, she's going to say that Donald Trump is busy creating an enemies list, while she's creating a — quote — "to-do list." And based on prepared excerpts of her remarks that we have, she is going to call Donald Trump unstable, obsessed with revenge, and also say that Americans that don't agree with her, she doesn't consider them enemies, and she wants to give them a seat at the table.

She's also going to talk about her economic plans and talk about the opportunities that she wants to create for Americans and working Americans.

Geoff Bennett: And, Laura, considering the message and the choice of location tonight, what does the Harris campaign want folks to take away from her speech this evening?

Laura Barron-Lopez: This location was chosen intentionally, Geoff.

We are on the Ellipse, and this is where Donald Trump gave that speech on January 6, 2021. Harris' campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, said that they specifically wanted it here to create a stark visualization and remind voters about Donald Trump's speech, where he encouraged his supporters to march to the Capitol to stop certification and overturn the 2020 results.

They also like the fact that the White House is going to be directly behind the vice president and that the White House — that people, Americans, can hopefully visualize the vice president as the next commander in chief.

Geoff Bennett: With a week to go until Election Day, who is the Harris campaign trying to reach at this point?

Laura Barron-Lopez: She is trying to intimately speak to people who may not feel engaged, who may not feel as though it's worth getting engaged, to those remaining undecided voters, according to the campaign officials that I spoke to today, Geoff.

And that includes also they really want to drive turnout among suburban women, independents, moderate Republicans specifically. And Harris' campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, also said that they are trying to make sure that those voters that turned out in 2022 about abortion turn out again this year.

Geoff Bennett: And, of course, this comes just days after Donald Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden, which was really marked by racist and sexist comments from some of the speakers.

Based on your reporting, has that broken through with voters at all?

Laura Barron-Lopez: It appears that it has, Geoff. The campaign believes that it's breaking through.

They say that they are seeing a lot of movement amongst Puerto Rican voters, specifically in states like Pennsylvania. And I also spoke — it's not just the campaign. I also spoke to the owner of a Spanish-language radio station in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where a lot of Latinos, specifically Puerto Ricans, live.

And he said that people are calling in angry about the comments made about Puerto Rico and that some that weren't necessarily going to vote are planning on voting now. Why does that matter, Geoff? Because there are more than half-a-million Latinos in the swing state of Pennsylvania, and the vast majority of them are Puerto Rican.

So the Harris campaign sees a potential momentum here in a key battleground state, Geoff.

Geoff Bennett: Laura Barron-Lopez reporting from the Ellipse tonight. Laura, thank you.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Thank you.