Kamala Harris posts first video and prepares to break through America's racial and gender barriers
Senator Kamala Harris has posted her first campaign video, recording the moment Joe Biden asked her to be her Vice President.
She didn’t exactly hesitate in answering Biden’s question. Not just yes, but “absolutely yes.” And you can see why.
A few months ago, Kamala Harris was looking at failure - her own presidential campaign spluttered and failed. Now Biden has put her on a trajectory that could take her - four year from now - into the Oval Office itself.
Kamala Harris: Who is the woman Joe Biden has chosen as his running mate in the 2020 US election?
Joe Biden picks Kamala Harris as running mate for vice president
It’s often said in this town that when a Senator looks in the mirror, he sees a future President. Now we’ll need to rephrase that.
When Kamala Harris looks in the mirror, she has every reason to see a future President.
The historic nature of Joe Biden's choice of Kamala Harris is unmistakable. She becomes the first woman of colour ever to be on a presidential ticket.
Her personal story is certainly remarkable: her father was Jamaican, her mother was from India, she identifies as Black, and she has risen rapidly through the cut-throat world of Californian politics.
She has long been seen as the frontrunner for the role of VP. Harris is a widely admired Senator and Democrats love how she took on Trump in the early debates, calling him a "predator and a coward."
Her forensic cross-examination of witnesses in Senate hearings is legendary.
The early reaction to Biden's decision to choose Harris is positive within the party. He has delivered on his promise to bring diversity to the White House if he wins, and he has chosen not a political novice (like John McCain did with Sarah Palin) but an experienced and seasoned player who knows how to get things done.
This is not tokenism. Biden is playing to win, and he has chosen the strongest possible running mate.
Furthermore, given how Harris attacked him on the debate stage when she was fighting for the Democratic Party nomination, Biden looks magnanimous. He doesn't hold a grudge.
Trump has surrounded himself with loyalists and sycophants. In marked contrast, Biden seems to bringing together a coalition of powerful politicians who can think and act independently.
The President has tried to launch a counter-attack accusing Senator Harris of being a "phoney" and of embracing "the radical left." But that is likely to fail.
Yes, she has a super liberal voting record in the Senate; but Harris is also a former prosecutor who often supported the police.
Indeed, her critics on the left say she incarcerated too many people and gave the police the benefit of the doubt too often.
In other words, she is more pragmatist that revolutionary, despite the efforts of Trump to portray her as a danger to America.