WASHINGTON – Former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate, sen. Kamala Harris of California, made her first joint appearance on Wednesday as a full ticket, when she delivered speeches in Wilmington, Del.
“As children of immigrants, [Harris] knows personally how immigrant families enrich our country, as well as the challenges of what it means to grow up black and Native American in the United States of America, “Biden said. Her story is the story of America. It is different from mine in many details, but also not so different in the essences. “
“And this morning, all over the country, little girls woke up, especially little black and brown girls, who so often look and feel underestimated in the communities, but today – today, just maybe, they see themselves for the first time in a new way, like the game of presidents and vice presidents, “Biden said.
The event was held in a high school gymnasium without an audience there to cheer up the applause lines. Both Biden and Harris wore masks while they were with other people, a gruesome reminder of how the coronavirus pandemic has broken the traditions of the presidential campaign. Nevertheless, the warmth and personal comfort between the two candidates was palpable.
“My campaign has always been a family affair, every campaign I’ve run,” Biden said, turning to Harris. “So I have some news for you, you are all Honorable Bidens. And here’s the nice part: Kamala, you’ve been an honorific for a while.”
Speaking to Biden, Harris led with an emotional tribute to Biden’s son, the late Beau Biden, whom she considered a friend and colleague. “He was really the best of us, and when I asked him, ‘Where did you get that? Where did this come from?’ he would always talk about his father, “she said.
Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden listens to his running mate for vice president, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, speaking during their first press conference together in Wilmington, Delaware, on August 12, 2020.
Olivier Douliery | AFP | Getty Images
But Harris quickly shifted from the personal to the political and delivered a shameful condemnation of President Donald Trump.
“The case against Donald Trump and Mike Pence is open and close,” said Harris, nodding to her career as a lawyer. “Just look at where they got us: More than 16 million out of work. Millions of children unable to return to school. … And tragically, more than 165,000 lives that have been shortened, many with lovers who never got the chance to say goodbye.
“It didn’t have to be that way,” she said. “Six years ago we had, in fact, another health crisis. It was called Ebola, and we all remember that pandemic. But you know what happened? Barack Obama and Joe Biden did their job. Only two people in the United States States died Two .. That’s called leadership.
“Trump is also the reason millions of Americans are unemployed now,” Harris said. “He inherited the longest economic expansion in history … and then, like everything else he inherited, he ran it right into the ground. Because of Trump’s failure of leadership, our economy has one of the biggest hits of all. large took industrialized countries, with an unemployment rate that is three times as high as today.
“This is what happens when we choose a man who is simply not on the job, when our country ends up in taters,” Harris said.
Announced on Tuesday, Harris’ selection as Biden’s running mate was immediately lent racial diversity, gender parity and generational breadth to his presidential campaign and to a potential Biden White House.
Biden’s decision to tap Harris, 55, was widely praised by leading Democrats and widely accepted by most Republicans, some of whom even publicly acknowledged that the former California attorney general was a strategically wise choice.
Following Biden’s announcement, it soon became clear that neither President Donald Trump nor his reelection campaign had settled on a preferred attack to use against Harris.
Speaking at a White House news conference, Trump said Harris “was my number one choice”, paying her an apparent compliment before calling her “the most” and “worst” and “disgusting” a few minutes later.
Meanwhile, Trump champions consider surrogates between portraying Harris as the agent of a “radical agenda” from left to right on the one hand, and on the other, and calling Harris a “false” for them after all. pretended to be a real progressive, when in fact she was a moderate.
While the Trump campaign on Tuesday night was looking for a coherent message, the Biden campaign had raised money by hand over fists.
In the four hours following Biden’s announcement, Act Blue reported that the leading Democratic currency platform raised $ 10.8 million, which was more than $ 8 million more than the site had raised in the same four hours the day before.
Speaking on Wednesday, Biden said the previous day had been his single biggest day of his campaign for fundraising grasshoppers, and more than twice as much as every other day in his annual campaign.
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