Kamala Harris, the vice president of the United States, praised her boss, President Joe Biden, a day after he dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed her as his successor.
“Joe Biden’s legacy of accomplishments over the past three years is unparalleled in modern history,” Harris said on Monday, in her first public appearance since the 81-year-old US leader abruptly announced his withdrawal from the November polls. , one day earlier.
“In one term, he has already surpassed the legacy of most two-term presidents,” Harris said at a White House event honoring college athletes, where she stood in for Biden, who is recovering at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. , after testing positive for COVID-19 last week.
In her statement, however, Harris, 59, did not specifically refer to her new status as the leading Democratic candidate to replace Biden as the party’s presidential candidate.
Meanwhile, virtually all of the prominent Democrats who were seen as potential opponents of Harris lined up behind her, including Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives and one of the oldest and best-known Democrats.
Pelosi, who has remained influential since stepping down as speaker of the House in 2022, played a leading role in persuading Biden to end his campaign amid concerns about his mental acuity and ability to defeat Republican Donald Trump or deliver. four more years.
“With love and gratitude, I salute President Biden for always believing in America’s possibilities and giving people the opportunity to achieve their fulfillment,” Pelosi, 84, said in a statement Monday.
“We must unify and move forward to resoundingly defeat Donald Trump and enthusiastically elect Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States.”
Biden and Harris have worked together since 2020. Upon solidifying his lead in that year’s elections, the US president promised that he would choose a woman as his running mate. Harris’ selection was seen as an effort to appeal to black voters and energize the party’s base.
On Sunday, when declaring that he was abandoning his re-election campaign, Biden wrote on the X that his endorsement of Harris was “the best decision” he had made.
Campaign officials and allies have already made hundreds of appeals on Harris’ behalf, urging delegates at next month’s Democratic Party convention to join in nominating her for president in the Nov. 5 election against Trump.
The party’s new candidate will be chosen at the convention in Chicago next month, when more than 4,000 party officials and activists will gather to vote.
Harris could, however, still face opponents seeking the Democratic nomination in the coming days.
Rebekah Caruthers, vice president of the Fair Elections Center, told Al Jazeera that Harris has a solid track record when it comes to winning elections.
“She has been on the ballot many times, serving as district attorney and attorney general of California. She herself ran for president during the 2020 cycle,” Caruthers said.
“One thing the Harris campaign has been touting: every time Kamala Harris is on the ballot, she wins the election.”
But some Democrats were concerned about Harris’ candidacy, in part due to the weight of a long history of racial and gender discrimination in the United States, which has not elected a woman president in its nearly 250-year history.
“We should all prepare for the onslaught that would face any historic candidate,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told reporters. “Misogyny in our politics is far from over. Racism in our politics – especially confronting Donald Trump as an adversary – is far, far from over.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
