Biden goes into battle
WASHINGTON: Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has invoked the memory of his late son Beau in an emotional first speech to endorse his pick for vicepresident, Kamala Harris.
As the White House election stepped closer to being a battle of law and order credentials between the Democrats and President Donald
Trump’s Republicans, Mr Biden cited Senator Harris’s record as the California attorney-general, and how she interacted with Beau, her counterpart in Delaware before his death from brain cancer in 2015 at age 46.
“I have the great honour to announce that I have picked Kamala Harris – a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants as my running mate,” he posted on Twitter.
“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.”
Continuing the theme of US crime as an election battleground, Senator Harris, 55, emphasised her former work as a prosecutor.
In response, Mr Trump accused Mr Biden and Senator
Harris of collaborating with the protesters who have spread mayhem across US cities in the past three months.
Mr Trump said surging crime rates in Democrat-run cities such as Portland, Chicago and New York would spread across the country if he didn’t win in November.
“Take a look at Portland, take a look at any place,” he said. “What happened in New York, it’s not even believable.
“What’s happening in Chicago,
where one week ago 78 people were shot and 18 died in a weekend – if you let Democrats run this country, you will have all of your cities be just like that.”
Earlier, in their first lowkey public appearance together, Senator Harris – the first black woman and the first South Asian woman on a US presidential ticket – said she was “incredibly honoured” and “ready to get to work”.
“This is a moment of real consequence for America. Everything we care about – our economy, our health, our children, the kind of country we live in – it’s all on the line,” she said.
Mr Biden dismissed as “predictable” the personal attacks from Mr Trump, who quickly labelled Senator Harris “nasty” and “phony”.
“You could have set your watches to it,” he said. “It’s no surprise. Whining is what Donald Trump does best.”