Term for rhetorical refrain
Senator Harris is using "repetition", a common rhetorical device.
Repetition is a literary device that repeats the same words or phrases a few times to make an idea clearer and more memorable. There are several types of repetition commonly used in both prose and poetry.
Repetition is a literary device that repeats the same words or phrases a few times to make an idea clearer and more memorable. ... As a rhetorical device, it could be a word, a phrase, or a full sentence, or a poetical line repeated to emphasize its significance in the entire text.
There are quite a few types of repetition and Harris uses an epimone.
- Epimone (pronounced eh-PIM-o-nee) is a rhetorical term for the frequent repetition of a phrase or question; dwelling on a point. Also known as perseverantia, leitmotif, and refrain.
A very good example of an epimone can be seen in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Who doesn't remember...
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men--
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me;
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill;
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man. . . .
-- (Mark Antony in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Act 3, scene 2)