Well, the suspense was no doubt killing us all, but it’s official now.
Joe Biden’s VP running mate is none other than Kamala Harris.
That “little girl in California who was bussed to school” is now Joe Biden’s number two if he becomes president of the United States.
What that really means is that if Biden is elected, Kamala Harris is probably president within a few months.
Our pals at Fox News have the story:
Kamala Harris, the politically shrewd California senator with a law enforcement background that has caused some tensions with the progressive left, was announced Tuesday as Joe Biden’s running mate.
"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," Biden said in an email to supporters.
She makes history as the first Black woman to serve as a major political party’s VP pick.
"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," Harris tweeted.
The Biden campaign said Biden and Harris will deliver remarks together on Wednesday in Wilmington, Delaware.
Biden tweeted on Tuesday, "Back when Kamala was Attorney General, she worked closely with Beau. I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse. I was proud then, and I'm proud now to have her as my partner in this campaign."
The decision, following months of secret meetings and closely held deliberations, would indicate the former vice president is setting aside their friction from the primary campaign. Harris memorably drew sharp contrasts with Biden when she challenged him on the debate stage over his past resistance to federally mandated desegregation busing.
Signaling the campaign's line of attack against Harris, President Trump responded by tweeting out an attack ad soon after the announcement that called her “phony Kamala Harris.”
The Trump campaign also released a statement from Katrina Pierson, a Trump 2020 senior adviser, that said: "In her failed attempt at running for president, Kamala Harris gleefully embraced the left’s radical manifesto, calling for trillions of dollars in new taxes and backing Bernie Sanders’ government takeover of health care. She is proof that Joe Biden is an empty shell being filled with the extreme agenda of the radicals on the left.”
The now-presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s selection amounts to a vote of confidence in the senator’s political ability and her background, and a willingness to move past the bad blood. The decision may have been tipped days earlier, when he was photographed with talking points saying of Harris that he does “not hold grudges” and has “great respect for her.”
The choice also fulfills a commitment the former vice president made in March to name a woman as running mate. Naming a Black woman at a time when issues of racial inequality are front-and-center also responds to signals from some circles in the party that such a choice could help build bridges with the Black community.
The timing gives Biden space to re-introduce her to voters ahead of this month’s scaled-back Democratic National Convention.
Former President Obama praised the pick.
"Joe Biden nailed this decision," Obama said in a statement. "By choosing Senator Kamala Harris as America’s next vice president, he’s underscored his own judgment and character."
Biden’s naming of 55-year-old Harris as his running mate comes 13 months after she flattened him on the debate stage in Miami at the first Democratic presidential primary showdown.
During the debate, Harris criticized comments by the former vice president spotlighting his ability to find common ground during the 1970s with segregationist senators with whom he disagreed, and his opposition decades ago to federally mandated school busing.
“Do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose busing in America?” Harris asked Biden during the debate.
And in a line that went viral, she spotlighted that “there was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.”
Biden, who served eight years as vice president to Barack Obama, the first Black president in U.S. history, and who’s enjoyed strong support from African-American voters as he makes his third bid for president, angrily said the senator’s comments were “a mischaracterization” of his position.
Biden’s poll numbers briefly edged down after the debate – and Harris enjoyed a short-lived surge in the polls. But her campaign faltered later in the year, and Harris ended her White House bid last December.
By the time she suspended her campaign, the relationship between Harris and Biden had improved. Biden has publicly praised Harris numerous times – and has repeatedly pointed out that he’s thought highly of her since she became close to his late son, Beau Biden, when they both served as attorney general of their respective states.
Harris ended up endorsing Biden and appeared on stage with him – along with another former rival, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey – at a rally in Michigan on the eve of that state’s March 10 primary, which the former vice president ended up winning decisively as he moved closer to locking up the Democratic nomination.
“I believe in Joe. I believe in Joe,” Harris said at the rally. “I know Joe. And that’s why I’m supporting him.”
The rally was Biden’s last before the coronavirus pandemic swept across the country, shutting down in-person campaigning. Since then, Harris has campaigned virtually for Biden, headlining online events and fundraisers.
While the Harris-Biden feud now seems like ancient history, what may still be relevant is her prosecutorial record as San Francisco district attorney and later as California attorney general.
Even before she announced her White House bid in January of last year, Harris’ record as a “progressive prosecutor” was being scrutinized and criticized by some on the left.
And that record was in the spotlight at last summer’s second Democratic primary debate in Detroit, as the senator faced withering attacks from Biden and another rival, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.
The former vice president accused Harris of keeping nonviolent prisoners behind bars during her tenure as California attorney general because they were a source of cheap labor for the state.
“What happened? Along came a federal judge and said enough is enough and he freed 1,000 of these people,” Biden said as he argued that Harris was forced by a judge to release the prisoners.
Gabbard also jumped in to land heavy blows – accusing Harris of keeping “people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California.”
While the intra-party rifts from 2019 appear to have healed long ago, the attacks from past primary debates could be used as ammunition by President Trump’s campaign and allied groups to target Biden and Harris. And it remains unclear whether the progressive flank of the party will embrace her.
Joe Biden (or should I say Biden's handlers) have opened a giant can of worms with this one.
Back in the democratic primaries, Biden had some major clashes with Harris.
It's going to be exciting to see how Harris responds to criticism of, not only her own record, but the plethora of accusations Biden has faced in the last year.
We'll see how well those bridges have been mended in the next few months.
President Donald Trump had his own response to Biden's pick.
The president says "She was my number one pick."
Breitbart with more:
Following the announcement, the Biden campaign said both candidates will speak Wednesday in Wilmington, Delaware, “on working together to restore the soul of the nation and fight for working families to move the country forward.”
Harris ended her own bid for the White House in December amid dismal poll numbers and reported turmoil in her campaign. Although the California Democrat launched her campaign with much fanfare, her failed path to the White House never generated support akin to top tier candidates such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and of course, her running mate, Biden.
President Donald Trump’s re-elected campaign swiftly responded to Biden’s selection of Harris, branding the pair: “Slow Joe and Phony Kamala.”
“Kamala Harris ran for president by rushing to the radical left, embracing Bernie’s plan for socialized medicine, calling for trillions in new taxes, attacking Joe Biden for racist policies,” the Trump campaign said in a video tweeted by President Trump. “They smartly spotted a phony — but not Joe Biden. He’s not that smart,” the ad continues, before adding Biden “is handing over the reins to Kamala” if the two win in November.
“Slow Joe and Phony Kamala: Perfect together, wrong for America,” the ad concludes.
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