Joe Biden selects his VP: Kamala Harris ‘for the people’

Joe Biden has made an historic choice for his Vice Presidential running mate. I would argue that it was also his obvious choice. Joe Biden selects Kamala Harris as his running mate:

Joe Biden has chosen Kamala Harris, the prominent senator from California whose political career has included many barrier-breaking moments, as his running mate, his campaign announced on Tuesday.

Picking Harris, who is 55, provides the ticket with some generational diversity. Biden, 77, would be the oldest president-elect in U.S. history.

Senator Harris checks a lot of boxes: Harris, the daughter of a Jamaican-born father and Indian-born mother, served as a district attorney in San Francisco before becoming attorney general of California, the first woman to hold the post in the most populous US state. She was elected to the Senate in 2016, just the second black woman elected to the body and the first woman of South Asian heritage.

The announcement from Biden caps weeks of speculation and is Biden’s biggest decision to date as the presumptive Democratic nominee — a detail Biden himself noted in his announcement.

“You make a lot of important decisions as president. But the first one is who you select to be your Vice President. 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 wrote in an email from his campaign to supporters.

“I need someone working alongside me who is smart, tough, and ready to lead. Kamala is that person,” Biden wrote. “I need someone who understands the pain that so many people in our nation are suffering. Whether they’ve lost their job, their business, a loved one to this virus.”

“This president says he ‘doesn’t want to be distracted by it.’ He doesn’t understand that taking care of the people of this nation — all the people — isn’t a distraction — it’s the job,” Biden continued. “Kamala understands that. I need someone who understands that we are in a battle for the soul of this nation. And that if we’re going to get through these crises — we need to come together and unite for a better America. Kamala gets that.”

Biden and Harris will appear together, and speak, in Biden’s home town of Wilmington, Delaware on Wednesday, the campaign said.

[A] native of Oakland, California, and the child of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, Harris has said she was inspired to attend law school after joining civil rights protests with her parents.

“She’s been a fighter and a principled leader and I know because I’ve seen her up close and I’ve seen her in the trenches,” Biden said of Harris at a virtual fundraiser in June.

As attorney general, Harris worked closely with Biden’s late son, Beau Biden, when he was Delaware’s attorney general, particularly in challenging big banks in the wake of the housing crisis. In her book, “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey,” Harris says the pair “talked every day, sometimes multiple times a day.”

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Both Biden and Harris allies have acknowledged that, in the months after she left the race, Harris has given her full support to the Biden campaign. She has often campaigned virtually for Biden, holding joint fundraisers with the candidate and roundtables around issues like the racial disparities in coronavirus cases and protecting the Affordable Care Act. In a June virtual fundraiser, she raised $3.5 million for the campaign.

Harris was praised for her pointed questioning of Attorney General Bill Barr and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during their respective confirmation hearings, highlighting her record as a prosecutor.

But her record as a prosecutor, especially on issues like marijuana convictions and truancy, has also been a source of criticism, especially from younger, more progressive voters.

Harris has faced pushback in recent weeks from some Biden allies who said the former presidential candidate is too ambitious — criticism that many were quick to point out was sexist.

“Our campaign is full of ambitious women going all out for Joe Biden,” Biden’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a tweet. “Whoever he chooses from the very qualified options to help him win & unite the country, she’ll be one too.”

Harris responded during a virtual conference with Black Girls Rock earlier this month.

“There will be resistance to your ambition,” she said. “There will be people who say to you, you are out of your lane. But don’t let that burden you.”

Throughout the pandemic, Harris has been living in her Washington apartment with her husband, Douglass Emhoff, an entertainment lawyer. She attended Howard University for her undergraduate degree and was a Capitol Hill intern in the very same office she occupies today.

This is a good choice that should energize the Democratic base, especially African-American voters who did not turn out for Hillary Clinton in 2016 with the same enthusiasm that they did for Barack Obama.

UPDATE: Former President Barack Obama endorses Senator Kamala Harris VP pick.

I’ve known Senator @KamalaHarris for a long time. She is more than prepared for the job. She’s spent her career defending our Constitution and fighting for folks who need a fair shake. This is a good day for our country. Now let’s go win this thing. pic.twitter.com/duJhFhWp6g

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 11, 2020