Harris left 'most compelling closing argument' with star-studded surrogates: columnist

Some of the biggest names in politics and entertainment have come out in the closing days of the 2024 presidential campaign to rally supporters and ended up delivering Kamala Harris’ “most compelling closing arguments,” according to a columnist for The Atlantic.

Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee, Tyler Perry, Bruce Springsteen, Barack Obama and Beyoncé have all joined the vice president on-stage in recent days — and The Atlantic’s John Hendrickson wrote Friday that they “were her best messengers.”

“Thousands of potential voters had come out in support of Harris, but in the end, the evening felt more like an anti-Trump rally. And although Harris was the headliner, she seemed more like a role-player in an ensemble,” Hendrickson wrote in his column about Thursday night’s rally featuring Obama, Lee, Perry and Springsteen.

While he noted that Harris “found her rallying cry with ‘We’re not going back!” he added that he was “shocked to see some attendees begin to filter out several minutes into Harris’s speech.”

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He said the night’s most effective speaker was Perry, who he wrote “connected with the crowd by telling his life story with raw, concrete anecdotes,” including one stirring line in which he compared Harris and Donald Trump’s visions of America to a “quilt” versus a “sheet.”

“Perry’s speech sounded like none other I’ve heard over the past two years of campaign-trail events, and that’s why it hit,” Hendricks wrote.

He concluded his column by telling readers that it may not matter to many voters that Harris “may be leaving some of the most memorable and compelling closing arguments to her surrogates.”

“Harris’s messaging against Donald Trump has merit, but the ideas that penetrate deepest are those that strike at one’s personal core — such as the stories that Perry told last night,” he wrote. "With 11 days left, it’s unclear whether Harris feels comfortable enough to go down that path.”