|
|
|
Biden
selects
California
Sen.
Kamala
Harris
as
running
mate
By
KATHLEEN
RONAYNE
and
WILL
WEISSERT
apnews.com
WILMINGTON,
Del. -
Joe
Biden
named
California
Sen.
Kamala
Harris
as his
running
mate on
Tuesday,
making
history
by
selecting
the
first
Black
woman to
compete
on a
major
party’s
presidential
ticket
and
acknowledging
the
vital
role
Black
voters
will
play in
his bid
to
defeat
President
Donald
Trump.
“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,”
Biden
tweeted.
In a
text
message
to
supporters,
Biden
said,
“Together,
with
you,
we’re
going to
beat
Trump”
In
choosing
Harris,
Biden is
embracing
a former
rival
from the
Democratic
primary
who is
familiar
with the
unique
rigor of
a
national
campaign.
Harris,
a
55-year-old
first-term
senator,
is also
one of
the
party’s
most
prominent
figures
and
quickly
became a
top
contender
for the
No. 2
spot
after
her own
White
House
campaign
ended.
Harris
joins
Biden in
the 2020
race at
a moment
of
unprecedented
national
crisis.
The
coronavirus
pandemic
has
claimed
the
lives of
more
than
150,000
people
in the
U.S.,
far more
than the
toll
experienced
in other
countries.
Business
closures
and
disruptions
resulting
from the
pandemic
have
caused
an
economic
collapse.
Unrest,
meanwhile,
has
emerged
across
the
country
as
Americans
protest
racism
and
police
brutality.
Trump’s
uneven
handling
of the
crises
has
given
Biden an
opening,
and he
enters
the fall
campaign
in
strong
position
against
the
president.
In
adding
Harris
to the
ticket,
he can
point to
her
relatively
centrist
record
on
issues
such as
health
care and
her
background
in law
enforcement
in the
nation’s
largest
state.
Harris’
record
as
California
attorney
general
and
district
attorney
in San
Francisco
was
heavily
scrutinized
during
the
Democratic
primary
and
turned
off some
liberals
and
younger
Black
voters
who saw
her as
out of
step on
issues
of
systemic
racism
in the
legal
system
and
police
brutality.
She
tried to
strike a
balance
on these
issues,
declaring
herself
a
“progressive
prosecutor”
who
backs
law
enforcement
reforms.
Biden,
who
spent
eight
years as
President
Barack
Obama’s
vice
president,
has
spent
months
weighing
who
would
fill
that
same
role in
his
White
House.
He
pledged
in March
to
select a
woman as
his vice
president,
easing
frustration
among
Democrats
that the
presidential
race
would
center
on two
white
men in
their
70s.
Biden’s
search
was
expansive,
including
Massachusetts
Sen.
Elizabeth
Warren,
a
leading
progressive,
Florida
Rep. Val
Demings,
whose
impeachment
prosecution
of Trump
won
plaudits,
California
Rep.
Karen
Bass,
who
leads
the
Congressional
Black
Caucus,
former
Obama
national
security
adviser
Susan
Rice and
Atlanta
Mayor
Keisha
Lance
Bottoms,
whose
passionate
response
to
unrest
in her
city
garnered
national
attention.
A
woman
has
never
served
as
president
or vice
president
in the
United
States.
Two
women
have
been
nominated
as
running
mates on
major
party
tickets:
Democrat
Geraldine
Ferraro
in 1984
and
Republican
Sarah
Palin in
2008.
Their
party
lost in
the
general
election.
The
vice
presidential
pick
carries
increased
significance
this
year. If
elected,
Biden
would be
78 when
he’s
inaugurated
in
January,
the
oldest
man to
ever
assume
the
presidency.
He’s
spoken
of
himself
as a
transitional
figure
and
hasn’t
fully
committed
to
seeking
a second
term in
2024. If
he
declines
to do
so, his
running
mate
would
likely
become a
front-runner
for the
nomination
that
year.
Born
in
Oakland
to a
Jamaican
father
and
Indian
mother,
Harris
won her
first
election
in 2003
when she
became
San
Francisco’s
district
attorney.
In the
role,
she
created
a
reentry
program
for
low-level
drug
offenders
and
cracked
down on
student
truancy.
She
was
elected
California’s
attorney
general
in 2010,
the
first
woman
and
Black
person
to hold
the job,
and
focused
on
issues
including
the
foreclosure
crisis.
She
declined
to
defend
the
state’s
Proposition
8, which
banned
same-sex
marriage
and was
later
overturned
by the
U.S.
Supreme
Court.
As
her
national
profile
grew,
Harris
built a
reputation
around
her work
as a
prosecutor.
After
being
elected
to the
Senate
in 2016,
she
quickly
gained
attention
for her
assertive
questioning
of Trump
administration
officials
during
congressional
hearings.
In one
memorable
moment
last
year,
Harris
tripped
up
Attorney
General
William
Barr
when she
repeatedly
pressed
him on
whether
Trump or
other
White
House
officials
pressured
him to
investigate
certain
people.
Harris
launched
her
presidential
campaign
in early
2019
with the
slogan
“Kamala
Harris
For the
People,”
a
reference
to her
courtroom
work.
She was
one of
the
highest-profile
contenders
in a
crowded
Democratic
primary
and
attracted
20,000
people
to her
first
campaign
rally in
Oakland.
But
the
early
promise
of her
campaign
eventually
faded.
Her law
enforcement
background
prompted
skepticism
from
some
progressives,
and she
struggled
to land
on a
consistent
message
that
resonated
with
voters.
Facing
fundraising
problems,
Harris
abruptly
withdrew
from the
race in
December
2019,
two
months
before
the
first
votes of
the
primary
were
cast.
One
of
Harris’
standout
moments
of her
presidential
campaign
came at
the
expense
of
Biden.
During a
debate,
Harris
said
Biden
made
“very
hurtful”
comments
about
his past
work
with
segregationist
senators
and
slammed
his
opposition
to
busing
as
schools
began to
integrate
in the
1970s.
“There
was a
little
girl in
California
who was
a part
of the
second
class to
integrate
her
public
schools,
and she
was
bused to
school
every
day,”
she
said.
“And
that
little
girl was
me.”
Shaken
by the
attack,
Biden
called
her
comments
“a
mischaracterization
of my
position.”
The
exchange
resurfaced
recently
one of
Biden’s
closest
friends
and a
co-chair
of his
vice
presidential
vetting
committee,
former
Connecticut
Sen.
Chris
Dodd,
still
harbors
concerns
about
the
debate
and that
Harris
hadn’t
expressed
regret.
The
comments
attributed
to Dodd
and
first
reported
by
Politico
drew
condemnation,
especially
from
influential
Democratic
women
who said
Harris
was
being
held to
a
standard
that
wouldn’t
apply to
a man
running
for
president.
Some
Biden
confidants
said
Harris’
campaign
attack
did
irritate
the
former
vice
president,
who had
a
friendly
relationship
with
her.
Harris
was also
close
with
Biden’s
late
son,
Beau,
who
served
as
Delaware
attorney
general
while
she held
the same
post in
California.
But
Biden
and
Harris
have
since
returned
to a
warm
relationship.
“Joe
has
empathy,
he has a
proven
track
record
of
leadership
and more
than
ever
before
we need
a
president
of the
United
States
who
understands
who the
people
are,
sees
them
where
they
are, and
has a
genuine
desire
to help
and
knows
how to
fight to
get us
where we
need to
be,”
Harris
said at
an event
for
Biden
earlier
this
summer.
At
the same
event,
she
bluntly
attacked
Trump,
labeling
him a
“drug
pusher”
for his
promotion
of the
malaria
drug
hydroxychloroquine
as a
treatment
for the
coronavirus,
which
has not
been
proved
to be an
effective
treatment
and may
even be
more
harmful.
After
Trump
tweeted
“when
the
looting
starts,
the
shooting
starts”
in
response
to
protests
about
the
death of
George
Floyd, a
Black
man, in
police
custody,
Harris
said his
remarks
“yet
again
show
what
racism
looks
like.”
Harris
has
taken a
tougher
stand on
policing
since
Floyd’s
killing.
She
co-sponsored
legislation
in June
that
would
ban
police
from
using
chokeholds
and
no-knock
warrants,
set a
national
use-of-force
standard
and
create a
national
police
misconduct
registry,
among
other
things.
It would
also
reform
the
qualified
immunity
system
that
shields
officers
from
liability.
The
list
included
practices
Harris
did not
vocally
fight to
reform
while
leading
California’s
Department
of
Justice.
Although
she
required
DOJ
officers
to wear
body
cameras,
she did
not
support
legislation
mandating
it
statewide.
And
while
she now
wants
independent
investigations
of
police
shootings,
she
didn’t
support
a 2015
California
bill
that
would
have
required
her
office
to take
on such
cases.
“We
made
progress,
but
clearly
we are
not at
the
place
yet as a
country
where we
need to
be and
California
is no
exception,”
she told
The
Associated
Press
recently.
But the
national
focus on
racial
injustice
now
shows
“there’s
no
reason
that we
have to
continue
to
wait.”
|
|
|
|
|
|