Biden, Harris make first appearance
Presidential hopeful: VP pick ‘ready to do this job on day one’
WILMINGTON, Del. — Joe Biden and Kamala Harris delivered an aggressive one-two attack on the character and performance of President Donald Trump on Wednesday, as they made their election case for the first time as running mates.
Biden, a 77-year-old white man, noted the significance of naming the first Black woman to a major party’s presidential ticket, but he also focused on other attributes Harris brings to the ticket. He hailed the California senator, the 55-year-old former prosecutor who a year ago excoriated Biden on a primary debate stage, as the right woman to help him defeat Trump and then lead a nation facing a pandemic that’s killed more than 165,000 Americans, wounded economy and long-simmering reckoning with systemic racism.
Harris, Biden said at a high school gymnasium in his Delaware hometown, is “smart, she’s tough, she’s experienced, she’s a proven fighter for the backbone of this country.”
“She’s ready to do this job on day one,” he continued.
Reflecting the pandemic, both candidates came onstage wearing protective masks with relatively few in attendance. Biden spoke of her experience questioning Trump administration officials in the Senate, and highlighted the historic nature of her pick, noting she’s the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica,
“This morning, all across the nation, little girls woke up — especially little Black and brown girls, who so often feel overlooked and undervalued in their communities. But today, today, just maybe, they’re seeing themselves for the first time in a new way,” Biden said.
Taking the stage after him, Harris said she was “mindful of all the ambitious women before me, whose sacrifice, determination and resilience makes my presence here today even possible.” She then lambasted Trump for a lack of leadership amid the pandemic.
“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.
Biden and Harris showed clear affection toward one another, with Biden calling her an “honorary Biden” and Harris offering an emotional tribute to his son
Beau, whom she was friends with when both served as attorneys general. Biden seemed overcome with emotion as Harris spoke of Beau, who died in 2015, as “the best of us” and a man who modeled himself after his father.
She signaled that she’ll offer a vigorous defense of Biden’s qualifications on issues of race and civil rights.
Noting his own vice presidency
under President Barack Obama, Harris said Biden “takes his place in the ongoing story of America’s march towards equality and justice” as the only person “who’s served alongside the first Black president and has chosen the first Black woman as his running mate.”
The pair will continue campaigning together through the Democrats’ virtual convention scheduled for next week.
Harris was considered a favorite throughout Biden’s search, and she’s been a regular surrogate campaigner and fundraiser for him since he became the presumptive nominee.
They’ll have to patch up differences exposed during the primary campaign, from Harris’ initial support for a single-payer health insurance system and the Green New Deal to her deeply personal debate-stage broadside against Biden over his opposition to federally mandated busing to integrate public schools in the 1970s.
Trump seized on those dynamics, tagging Harris as “Phony Kamala” and casting her as the latest evidence Biden, a five-decade veteran of the Democratic establishment, is captive to his party’s left flank.
White House adviser Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday suggested the senator will have a hard time not outshining Biden, whose age and fitness for office Conway frequently mocks. “He’s overshadowed basically by almost everyone he comes in contact with,” she said.
Biden’s campaign seemed prepared for the counteroffensive, noting that weeks ago, Trump said Harris would be a “fine choice.” And campaign finance records show Trump contributed as a private citizen to Harris’ attorney general campaigns in California. Harris was elected to the Senate in 2016.
Further muddying the GOP message, national operatives on Wednesday highlighted progressives’ criticism of Harris’ record
as a prosecutor and California attorney general, essentially criticizing her as part of the Democratic establishment.
Harris no longer supports a single-payer health insurance system, aligning instead with Biden’s proposal to add a public insurance option to compete alongside private plans.
She has endorsed the Green New Deal, progressives’ most ambitious set of proposals to combat the climate crisis, but didn’t make that an anchor of her presidential bid. Biden has moved left on his climate proposals during the 2020 campaign but has not fully embraced the Green New Deal.
Biden bets Harris has broad appeal that will shore up weaknesses with Black women, an anchor of the Democratic Party, and other voters of color, while juicing turnout among white liberals and coaxing support from independents and Republican-leaning white voters who have soured on Trump.