Joe Biden, the likely Democrat presidential nominee to take on President Trump in 2020, announced Tuesday that he will be joined by Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., who will be his running mate.
Harris once said that she believed women who accused Biden of inappropriate touching.
“I believe them, and I respect them being able to tell their story and having the courage to do it,” the California senator told reporters in April 2019.
His selection was not a surprise for political insiders who have said anything other than a black woman would be unwise given the current climate in the U.S. The two will hold a joint conference on Wednesday in Biden’s home state of Delaware.
“I’ve decided that Kamala Harris is the best person to help me take this fight to Donald Trump and Mike Pence and then to lead this nation starting in January 2021,” he said in an email.
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There have been rumors circulating for weeks about who Biden will select. His detractors have said his vice presidential pick will be the person who will be actually running the show if he is elected.
Flashback: Kamala Harris Said She Believes Joe Biden’s Accusers, “I Believe Them” (VIDEO) https://t.co/VJCdUI8ytE via @gatewaypundit
— uHomeschool2 (@uhomeschool2) August 12, 2020
Trump’s election team will likely use some of the primary debates as an example of their rocky relationship, especially when Harris called out Biden about “busing.”
The New York Times reported last year that the exchange between Harris and Biden was one of the most dramatic moments in the debates.
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Harris pointed out Biden’s opposition to “busing” in the 1970s, looked him in the eye and said, “There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.”
It was a dramatic blow for Biden even though she said earlier that she did not believe he was a racist.
The selection of Harris gives Biden a capable fighter who may be able to pick up some of his slack stemming from babbling television interviews and comments about the black vote that some say were racist.
Biden tweeted: “I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked @KamalaHarris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate.”
The Times reported that Harris is the first black woman and person of Indian descent to be nominated by a major party. The paper said she is the fourth woman in history to be tapped as a running mate.
Harris recently announced the Climate Equity Act that she introduced with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, R-N.Y., that she called “comprehensive legislation that addresses the realities of environmental and climate injustice in our country.”
Tom Bevan, the RealClearPolitics co-founder, told Fox News on Monday that Harris was a safe choice for Biden.
“If I was a betting man, I’d probably go with the favorite, Kamala Harris, just because she … I think, checks all the boxes and is the least risky choice,” Bevan said.