Former Vice President, and presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee, Joe Biden, has announced Kamala Harris as his running mate, making good on his months-long promise to choose a woman to be the vice-presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket. This historic pick places Harris as both the first Black woman and first Asian American woman to be named to a major-party U.S. presidential ticket, and potentially the first woman vice president if Biden defeats President Trump in November.
What Joe Biden Said
As tensions began to rise on who the 77-year-old presidential hopeful would select to stand by his side in his battle against President Trump, Biden made his announcement via a tweet posted on Tuesday, saying, “I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked @KamalaHarris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate.”
“Back when Kamala was Attorney General, she worked closely with Beau. I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse. I was proud then, and I’m proud now to have her as my partner in this campaign,” he added.
Harris’ Reaction
Harris, who represents California in the Senate was Biden’s competitor in the Democratic primary but dropped out of the race in December 2019. She endorsed the former vice president in March and offered her commitment to his campaign again, after being nominated as his running mate.
Tweeting after the news broke, Harris made her support clear, saying, “@JoeBiden can unify the American people because he’s spent his life fighting for us. And as president, he’ll build an America that lives up to our ideals,” she tweeted. “I’m honored to join him as our party’s nominee for Vice President, and do what it takes to make him our Commander-in-Chief.”
President Trump Shares His Thoughts
Reacting to Biden’s pick at a White House Briefing, President Donald Trump on Tuesday called Kamala Harris the “most horrible” member of the US Senate and said he was “surprised” Joe Biden had picked her as his vice-presidential candidate.
Trump told reporters at the White House that Harris did not impress him when she was vying for the Democratic nomination in primaries eventually won by Biden.
“I was more surprised than anything else because she did so poorly,” he said.
He also said that during the bruising 2018 Senate confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Harris was “the meanest, the most horrible, and the most disrespectful of anybody in the US Senate.”
