Kamala Harris assails Trump in first appearance as Joe Biden’s running mate
- Democratic VP pick slams US president for lack of leadership during coronavirus pandemic
- Biden calls Harris, the first Black and Asian-American woman on a major party’s presidential ticket, a ‘proven fighter’ who will help him defeat Trump
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris delivered an aggressive one-two attack on the character and performance of US 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, embraced 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 crises in triplicate: a pandemic, wounded economy and long-simmering reckoning with racism.
Harris, Biden declared at a high school gymnasium in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, is “smart, she’s tough, she’s experienced, she’s a proven fighter for the backbone of this country.”
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“Kamala knows how to govern. She knows how to make the hard calls. She’s ready to do this job on day one,” he said.
Reflecting the coronavirus pandemic, both candidates came onstage wearing protective masks in a high school gym with relatively few in attendance, not in a hall filled with cheering supporters as would normally be the case. Both spoke without masks but did not physically embrace.