On the third day of the Democratic National Convention, Kamala Harris has accepted her historic nomination as her party’s vice-presidential candidate, running with Joe Biden for the White House.
In her speech, Kamala Harris, the first US woman of color on a major-party ticket, assailed President Donald Trump’s “failure of leadership”.
She pledged to speak “truths” to the American public.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will challenge President Trump and his VP Mike Pence in the election on November 3.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced Democrats to abandon the cheering throngs, fanfare and razzmatazz of the typical party convention in favor of a virtual event of pre-recorded and live speeches.
The grand finale of the four-night conference will see Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, deliver a speech on August 20.
“We’re at an inflection point,” the California senator said, speaking live from a largely empty hotel ballroom in Joe Biden’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.
Attacking President Trump, Kamala Harris continued: “The constant chaos 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.
“We must elect a president who will bring something different, something better, and do the important work.”
Kamala Harris – the child of immigrants from India and Jamaica – pledged that she and Joe Biden would revive a country fractured by the coronavirus pandemic and racial tension.
“There is no vaccine for racism,” she said.
“We’ve got to do the work.”
She continued: “Donald Trump’s failure has cost lives and livelihoods.”
“Right now, we have a president who turns our tragedies into political weapons,” Kamala Harris added.
President Trump swiftly hit back, tweeting about Kamala Harris’ previous attack on Joe Biden over his record on race issues, while they were both rivals for the Democratic White House nomination.
He tweeted: “BUT DIDN’T SHE CALL HIM A RACIST??? DIDN’T SHE SAY HE WAS INCOMPETENT???”
The moment came during a live TV debate last year, though Kamala Harris prefaced those remarks by telling Joe Biden: “I do not believe you are a racist.”
Also on August 19, former President Barack Obama launched his most withering direct attack yet on Donald Trump, accusing his Republican successor of treating the White House like “one more reality show”.
Joe Biden’s campaign team has issued a scathing response after President Donald Trump amplified a conspiracy theory about Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris.
President Trump said he had “heard” that Kamala Harris – a US-born citizen whose parents were immigrants – “doesn’t qualify” to serve as vice-president.
The fringe theory has been dismissed by constitutional experts.
The Biden campaign called the comments “abhorrent” and “pathetic”.
They noted that President Trump spent years promoting a false “birther” theory that ex-President Barack Obama was not born in the US.
On August 11, Kamala Harris, a senator from California, became the first black woman and the first Asian-American to be named as a running mate on a main-party presidential ticket.
A Biden campaign spokesman said in an email: “Donald Trump was the national leader of the grotesque, racist birther movement with respect to President Obama and has sought to fuel racism and tear our nation apart on every single day of his presidency.
“So it’s unsurprising, but no less abhorrent, that as Trump makes a fool of himself straining to distract the American people from the horrific toll of his failed coronavirus response that his campaign and their allies would resort to wretched, demonstrably false lies in their pathetic desperation.”
Kamala Harris was born to a Jamaican father and Indian mother in Oakland, California, on October 20, 1964. As such, she is eligible to serve as president or vice-president.
Constitutional scholars have dismissed the fringe legal theory that President Trump was referring to.
To be vice-president or president, Kamala Harris “has to be a natural-born citizen, at least 35 years old, and a resident in the United States for at least 14 years”, Juliet Sorensen, a law professor at Northwestern University, told the Associated Press.
“She is. That’s really the end of the inquiry.”
Anyone born in the US and subject to its jurisdiction is a natural born citizen, regardless of the citizenship of their parents, says the Cornell Legal Information Institute.
After a conservative law professor questioned Kamala Harris’ eligibility based on her parents’ immigration status at the time of her birth, President Trump was asked about the argument at a press conference on August 13.
President Trump said: “I just heard it today that she doesn’t meet the requirements and by the way the lawyer that wrote that piece is a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer.
“I have no idea if that’s right. I would have assumed the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice-president.
“But that’s a very serious, you’re saying that, they’re saying that she doesn’t qualify because she wasn’t born in this country.”
The reporter replied there was no question that Kamala Harris was born in the US, simply that her parents might not have been permanent US residents at the time.
Kamala Harris has been named as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s running mate.
The California senator of Indian-Jamaican heritage is the first black woman and South Asian American in the role.
Once a rival for the top job, Kamala Harris had long been considered the front-runner for the vice-president.
The former California attorney general has been urging police reform amid nationwide anti-racism protests.
Joe Biden will face President Donald Trump in the election on November 3.
After August 11 announcement, Kamala Harris tweeted that Joe Biden “can unify the American people because he’s spent his life fighting for us. And as president, he’ll build an America that lives up to our ideals”.
“I’m honored to join him as our party’s nominee for Vice President, and do what it takes to make him our Commander-in-Chief.”
On August 12, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will deliver remarks in Wilmington, Delaware, on “working together to restore the soul of the nation and fight for working families to move the country forward”, the Biden campaign said.
At a White House news conference on August 11, President Donald Trump, a Republican, said he was pleased with Joe Biden’s choice, adding that Kamala Harris did “very, very poorly” in her effort to become the Democratic nominee.
Kamala Harris will take part in a debate with President Trump’s running mate, Vice-President Mike Pence, on October 7 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
In last year’s race to be the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris showed herself to be a forceful speaker, launching blistering attacks on Donald Trump.
The role of a vice-presidential running mate isn’t always clearly defined.
One of the traditional roles is to go on the offensive in exposing the opposition’s weaknesses, while the presidential nominee focuses on communicating the party’s message.
Constitutionally, the vice-president steps in to the top job should the president die or leave office during his or her term.
Joe Biden will turn 78 in November, meaning should he be elected he will be the oldest US president in history (Ronald Reagan was 77 when he left office).
His age means Joe Biden’s vice-presidential choice may come under extra scrutiny.
Kamala Harris, 55, dropped out of the presidential race in December after failing to make headway in her bid to win the Democratic nomination.
She repeatedly clashed with Joe Biden during the primary election debates, most notably criticizing his praise for the “civil” working relationship he had with former senators who favored racial segregation.
Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, California, to two immigrant parents: an Indian-born mother and Jamaican-born father.
She went on to attend Howard University, one of the nation’s preeminent historically black colleges and universities. She has described her time there as among the most formative experiences of her life.
Kamala Harris says she’s always been comfortable with her identity and simply describes herself as “an American”.
Only two other women have been nominated as vice-presidential candidates for a major party – Sarah Palin by the Republican party in 2008 and Geraldine Ferraro by the Democrats in 1984. Neither were on the winning ticket.
A woman of color has never been appointed to a presidential ticket by either of the two main American political parties. No woman has won the US presidency either.
Joe Biden tweeted that he had “the great honor” to name Kamala Harris as his number two.
He described her as “a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants”.
Joe Biden pledged in March to name a woman on the ticket. He had faced mounting calls to pick a black woman in recent months as the nation has been convulsed by social unrest over police brutality against African Americans, a key voting bloc for the Democratic Party.
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