Biden, Harris offer vision of national healing, recovery
WILMINGTON, Del. — Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris debuted as running mates in a high school gymnasium Wednesday, pledging to lead the country out of the coronavirus crisis amid an onslaught of attacks from President Donald Trump as the two national tickets went head to head for the first time, less than three months before Election Day.
The first full day for the newly announced Democratic presidential ticket offered a glimpse of how two once-bitter rivals from opposite coasts and different generations will try to unite Americans around their candidacies.
Projecting warmth toward each other, they sketched out a vision of recovery from the public health and economic catastrophes the nation is confronting — crises that, they argued, Trump has made worse at every turn with an
extraordinarily divisive presidency.
“We need more than a victory on Nov. 3,” Harris said. “We need a mandate that proves that the past few years do not represent who we are or who we aspire to be.”
Harris, a former California attorney general, made clear that part of her campaign role would be demonstrating her skills as a prosecutor to build a case against Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, methodically detailing what she cast as their failures in combating the coronavirus, reopening the economy, and creating conditions under which schools could reopen safely this fall.
“Let me tell you, as somebody who has presented my fair share of arguments in court, the case against Donald Trump and Mike Pence is open and shut,” Harris said.
Other contours of Harris’ role in the campaign also started coming into focus Wednesday.
A Biden adviser described Harris as well positioned to connect with Black and Latino voters across the country as well as with suburban women, saying the campaign expected her presence on the ticket to drive turnout in Texas, Arizona and Florida in particular, as well as in communities of color nationally.
People familiar with Harris’ plans said they expected her to be a major presence on the virtual fundraising circuit, and she and Biden held a grassroots fundraiser Wednesday night. There, Biden announced that in the past 24 hours, the campaign had raised $26 million, with 150,000 firsttime contributors, according to a pool report.
Trump, who has unleashed sexist attacks on Harris, called her “a very risky pick” at a news conference as he referred to “horrible things” she had said about Biden during the primary campaign, suggesting those words would haunt the ticket.
“I’m sure that’ll be played back,” Trump said. “Not necessarily by me but others; it’ll be played back.”
Trump also defended his administration’s response to the virus, citing the number of tests that have been administered and bragging about the government’s efforts to ramp up production of ventilators to help gravely ill patients.
“We have better testing than any country in the world,” he said. “But when you look at the job that we’ve done compared to others, we’ve done a great job.”
Harris, the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica, is the first woman of color on a major party’s presidential ticket, and she and Biden argued that possibilities for American success stories abound despite the challenges that the nation confronts.
“Her story’s America’s story,” Biden said.
But they also laid out the staggering toll that the coronavirus crisis had taken on every facet of American life and made clear that the two Democrats hope to make the election in significant part a referendum on Trump’s handling of the outbreak.
“This virus has impacted almost every country, but there’s a reason it has hit America worse than any other advanced nation,” Harris said. “It’s because of Trump’s failure to take it seriously from the start. His refusal to get testing up and running. His flip-flopping on social distancing and wearing masks. His delusional belief that he knows better than the experts.
“All of that is … the reason that an American dies of COVID-19 every 80 seconds.”
The joint appearance provided a striking reminder of how the pandemic has upended the usual rhythms of a presidential campaign. Four years ago, Hillary Clinton and her newly selected running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, made their debut appearance in front of thousands of people inside an arena in Miami.
Biden, on the other hand, barely strayed from his Wilmington home for his appearance with Harris.
Although scores of onlookers gathered outside Alexis I. duPont High School to see what they could, the event was closed to the public.