United States: The US vice president, Kamala Harris, nominated her as his successor and complimented her boss, President Joe Biden, a day after he withdrew from the presidential race.
In her first public appearance since the 81-year-old US president abruptly announced his withdrawal from the November polls a day earlier, Harris stated on Monday that “Joe Biden’s legacy of accomplishment over the last three years is unmatched in modern history.”
“In one term, he has already surpassed the legacy of most presidents who have two terms in office,” Harris said at a White House event to honour college athletes, where she was filling in for Biden, who is recovering at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, after testing positive for COVID-19 last week.
But Harris, 59, made no mention of her new position as the front-runner to unseat Biden as the party’s presidential nominee in her remarks.
Nearly all of the well-known Democrats who were thought to be Harris’s rivals have already thrown their support behind her, including Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives and one of the party’s most illustrious and longest-serving members.
Concerns over Biden’s mental health and capacity to defeat Republican Donald Trump or to serve another four years caused him to stop his campaign, and Pelosi—who has remained powerful despite resigning as speaker in 2022—played a major part in convincing him to do so.
Since 2020, Biden and Harris have collaborated. The US president made a commitment to choose a female running mate as he extended his lead in that year’s election. Harris’s selection was interpreted as an attempt to energize the party’s grassroots and win over Black votes.
Declaring on X on Sunday that he was giving up on his re-election campaign, Biden wrote that supporting Harris has been “the best decision” he has ever made.
Hundreds of calls have already been placed on Harris’s behalf by campaign staff and supporters, pleading with Democratic Party convention delegates to support her candidacy for president in the November 5 election against Trump.
Next month, some 4,000 party officials and volunteers will convene in Chicago for the convention, when the next party nominee will be selected.
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