On Tuesday night, Kamala Harris was supposed to give a speech in the central courtyard of Howard University in Washington, between eleven and twelve at night. Not that the election results were decided at that time. But the trend could have been clear enough to at least say that victory was within reach.
The speech was canceled at a quarter to twelve when the party ended abruptly, with the electoral triumph of Donald Trump. So Harris returned this Wednesday at four-thirty in the afternoon to what was supposed to be the field of her victory to give the speech in which she admitted to having failed in her attempt, of three months and 17 days, to reach the presidency of the United States. A few hours earlier, she had called Donald Trump to congratulate him on his victory, a tradition in American politics that only Trump broke in 2020 when he did not admit to having lost the elections.
"While I admit defeat in these elections, I do not admit defeat in the fight that has fueled this campaign: the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for justice, and for the dignity of all people," Harris said to an audience of several thousand people, many of them very young, who could not hold back their tears. Among those visibly crying was her vice-presidential candidate, the governor of the state of Minnesota, Tim Walz.
She also indirectly took a jab at Trump, who had declared that if he lost, he would not accept the election results, as he did in 2020, by stating that "we must accept the results of these elections" and committing to "carry out a peaceful transfer of power." The Vice President said that "that is what distinguishes democracy from anarchy or tyranny, and anyone seeking power must respect it."