Harris goes on attack as she makes history
Sen. Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president Wednesday night, marking a historic first with a speech that was part autobiography, part campaign pitch and firmly rooted in her
California background.
The Oakland native officially became the first woman of color to be on a major party’s ticket on the penultimate night of the virtual Democratic convention after former President Barack Obama, the first Black president, spoke. It was a symbolic passing of the torch on the path to what Democrats hope Harris can achieve in November — becoming the first Black woman and first Asian American
woman to be elected vice president.
And the former San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general also showed off a skill Democrats hope she brings to the ticket — going on attack against President Trump.
Speaking from Wilmington, Del., where Joe Biden will accept the presidential nomination Thursday, Harris said that “the constant chaos (under Trump) leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callousness makes us feel alone. It’s a lot.
“And here’s the thing: We can do better and deserve so much more,” Harris said, shifting to the Democrats’ argument that Biden can help heal a country devastated by the coronavirus, economic hard times and racial injustice. “We must elect a president who will bring something different, something better, and do the important work. A president who will bring all of us together — Black, white, Latino, Asian, indigenous — to achieve the future we collectively want. We must elect Joe Biden.”
Harris accepted the nomination 20 months after she began her own presidential campaign before 20,000 people in a flagdraped Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland. Then, she promised to be both “a fighter for the people” and someone who could unite a country torn by partisanship.
Both are qualities that endeared her to Biden. On Wednesday, Harris previewed the ferocity she would unleash on Trump and the effort she would make to be a supportive partner to the Democratic former vice president.
“Right now, we have a president who turns our tragedies into political weapons,” Harris said. “Joe will be a president who turns our challenges into purpose.”
She added, “We are a nation that’s grieving. Grieving the loss of life, the loss of jobs, the loss of opportunities, the loss of normalcy. And yes, the loss of certainty. And while this virus touches us all, let’s be honest, it is not an equalopportunity offender. Black, Latino and
Indigenous people are suffering and dying disproportionately.
“This is not a coincidence,” Harris said. “It is the effect of structural racism.”
As she frequently does on the campaign trail, Harris talked about how formative her family was in shaping her. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, was an Indian immigrant who came to the U.S. at 19 to earn her doctorate at UC Berkeley. Gopalan largely raised Harris and her sister, Maya, after divorcing her father, Donald Harris, a Jamaican immigrant who also was in graduate school at Berkeley when Harris was born.
Harris said Wednesday that her parents met on the streets of Oakland “while marching together for justice in the civil rights movement of the 1960s . ... I got a stroller’seye view of people getting into what the great John Lewis called ‘good trouble.’ ”
Harris directly addressed what often confounds some of her detractors: how to describe herself. She spoke of how her mother raised her and her sister as Black, but also to be proud of their Indian heritage. And she described her view of family that had room for her Indian “chitthis,” or aunts, and her historically Black college and university sorority sisters.
Harris said her mother “taught us to put family first — the family you’re born into and the family you choose.”
She was nominated Wednesday by Maya Harris, niece Meena Harris, and a daughter with husband Doug Emhoff from his previous marriage, Ella Emhoff.
Ella Emhoff showcased a side of Harris that the nominee talks about less frequently — being a mom herself. Harris said her proudest title is that of “Momala” — the nickname her stepchildren have given her.
“You’re a rock,” Ella Emhoff said, “not just for my dad, but for three generations of our big blended family.”
Obama also mentioned family, as he spent much of his time praising “character and the experience” of what he called his “brother” Biden.
“Joe and I came from different places and different generations. But what I quickly came to admire about him is his resilience, born of too much struggle; his empathy, born of too much grief,” Obama said. “Joe’s a man who learned early on to treat every person he meets with respect and dignity, living by the words his parents taught him: ‘No one’s better than you, but you’re better than nobody.’ ”
Obama saved his toughest words for Trump.
“I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies. I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.
“But he never did,” Obama said. “He’s shown no interest in putting in the work, no interest in finding common ground, no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends, no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves.”
Given the historic nature of Harris’ nomination, Wednesday’s program was filled with powerful women: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, speaking with the Bay Bridge in the background; former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, who became a leading advocate against gun violence after being shot in Tucson more than nine years ago; 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton; New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham; and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who spoke from a child care center with alphabet blocks spelling out “BLM” in the background.
Clinton said she was confident that Harris is strong enough to withstand the attacks that will come at her as a woman on a national ticket.
“I know something about the slings and arrows she’ll face,” Clinton said, “and, believe me, this former district attorney general and attorney general can handle them all.”
Earlier Wednesday, Oakland Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee, cochair of the California delegation, said that “this moment for me, is a moment I’ve been waiting for since 1972,” when Democrat Shirley Chisholm became the first Black candidate for a major party’s nomination.
“These glass marble ceilings have been extremely difficult” to crack, Lee said. She predicted that Harris “would make sure women’s voices are heard. ... That’s extremely important, because sometimes the issues of women of color don’t make it to the top tier of the agenda.”
Lee added, “It’s a transformational period. Some of us would say it’s a revolutionary period.”
“Now, dent tragedies who we turns have into political a our presiweapons. Joe will be a president who turns our challenges into purpose.”
Kamala Harris