AUGUST 12, 2020
Democratic presidential nominee and former US Vice President Joe Biden (L) and vice presidential running mate, US Senator Kamala Harris, arrive to conduct their first press conference together in Wilmington, Delaware, on August 12, 2020. (Photo by Olivier DOULIERY / AFP)
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden made his first joint appearance Wednesday with his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris Wednesday, highlighting their shared values and her legislative history.
Biden began his speech by mentioning the campaign set a single-day record for online fundraising after announcing Harris as his running mate. “I think I know why,” he said, turning around to look at her.
Biden said Harris was a tough legislator who fought big banks and energy companies as attorney general. As the child of immigrants from Jamaica and India, she is an inspiration to young girls of cowaking up this morning, Biden said.
“Today just maybe they’re seeing themselves for the first time in a new way as the stuff of vice president and president,” Biden said during his speech.
The former campaign rivals began speaking shortly before 5 p.m. ET and at a high school near Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware..
Biden tweeted Wednesday that Harris “never shies away from fighting tooth and nail for what’s right,” whether against big banks or supporting marriage equality.
“It’s why I chose her to be my running mate,” Biden said. “She’ll wake up every day thinking about how to make life better for the people of our country.”
After the speeches, Harris will join Biden for a virtual fundraiser designed to let contributors see the pair together. Harris is a landmark candidate as the first Black woman and first Asian American woman to appear on a major-party ticket. Biden’s campaign raised nearly $11 million in four hours Tuesday after the choice was announced.
In this file photo taken on July 31, 2019, Democratic presidential hopefuls former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris greet each other ahead of the second round of the second Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season at the Fox Theatre in Detroit. Biden on Aug. 11, 2020, named Harris as his choice for vice president. – JIM WATSON, AFP via Getty Images
Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian descent, brings the political experience of winning statewide election in the largest state while also personifying the diversity that key Democratic activists have said is crucial to building grassroots enthusiasm for the ticket.
Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who was Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s running mate in 2016, said amid the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote that the country is good at many things, but not at electing women to high office. With women representing only 24% of Congress, Kaine said the U.S. trails Iraq, Canada, Mexico and many other countries.
“I can think of nothing better than a woman breaking the glass ceiling whereby no woman in this country has ever been a vice president or president,” Kaine said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “This is a good day, I believe, for the country and a good day for the Senate when one of the 100 is recognized in such a way and introduced to the American public with an opportunity to serve at a significant level.”
“She’s been the center of the most critical national security challenges the country faces,” Biden said in his speech Wednesday.
Harris was a prosecutor in San Francisco and state attorney general before winning election to the U.S. Senate in 2016. She serves on the Judiciary, Intelligence, Budget, and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees.
She joins a Biden campaign that has sought to unify factions of the party against Trump, after a contentious primary season that knocked out Harris before voting began. More progressive rivals to Biden, such as Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, vocally supported the selection of Harris.
Courtesy/Source: This article originally appeared on USA TODAY
