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NEW YORK – In the shadow of the White House, seven days before the final votes are cast for the 2024 election, Kamala Harris vowed to put country before party and warned that Donald Trump is obsessed with revenge and his own personal interests.

Arrived less than 48 hours earlier Madison Square GardenTrump called his Democratic opponent “a train wreck that has destroyed everything in its path.” His allies on stage called Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash” and said Harris, who would be the first woman to become president, had started her career as a prostitute.

Two nights and 200 miles apart, the dueling closing arguments outlined in stark terms the choice facing American voters on November 5, when they will weigh two very different visions of leadership and America’s future.

Trump’s raucous rally, marked by crude and racist insults, spotlighted the uglier elements of his coalition. But other parts of it underlined the former businessman’s appeal as someone who promises to fix the economy and borders, and as a political outsider eager to defy convention despite the risks.

Harris, vice president for the past four years, chose a more formal setting — the grassy Ellipse near the White House — to underscore the gravity of this moment in American history and the threat Trump poses to democracy. She faced with a large audience at the same place where Trump addressed thousands of his loyalists on January 6, 2021, before storming the US Capitol in one of the darkest days in modern history.

But Harris’ comments were not only intended to remind voters of the danger Trump poses to American democracy, but were also intended to highlight her opponent’s record of prioritizing his personal interests rather than that of the nation.

“Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That’s who he is. But America, I’m here tonight to say, that’s not who we are,” Harris said. “I pledge to be a president for all Americans – to always put country before party and before self.”

Senior advisor Jen O’Malley Dillon noted that Harris’ closing argument is intended to reach the small segment of undecided voters; among them are many moderate Republicans.

“We know there are still many voters who are still trying to decide who to support — or vote at all,” O’Malley Dillon said. “And this race is extremely close. We talk about it as a race with a margin of error. We know it will be closed in the last week.”

Trump’s team is more focused on galvanizing his partisan base and reaching rare voters across the political spectrum who are frustrated with the direction of the country and are looking for change.

Yet Trump has framed his comments in recent days with a simple question that crosses political lines, asking voters whether they are better off now than they were four years ago, at the end of his first term. While the country was still in the grip of the pandemic when Trump left office, polls indicate that most voters are unhappy with the direction of the country today.

Trump has promised to stage the largest deportation operation in US history and impose broad tariffs to raise revenue and boost American manufacturing.

Despite criticism from even some Republicans, Trump on Tuesday called his event at Madison Square Garden “a love fest” and did not address comments from pro-Trump comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash” . Hinchcliffe also made derogatory jokes about black people, other Latinos, Palestinians and Jews in his routine before Trump took the stage.

“No one has ever had love like this,” Trump said of the hourlong Sunday event that included his family members and high-profile surrogates and supporters, including billionaire Elon Musk, TV psychologist “Dr. Phil” McGraw and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. “It was really love for our country.”

The Republican former president also offered a dark assessment of Harris’ leadership on Tuesday. He said it has “obliterated” the country’s borders, “decimated the middle class,” brought “bloodshed and misery” to major cities and “unleashed war and chaos around the world.”

“No one who has caused so much destruction and death at home and abroad should ever be president of the United States,” Trump told dozens of supporters gathered at his Florida estate.