The Latest: LA mayor hails Harris pick as VP candidate
Posted August 11, 2020 1:55 pm.
Last Updated August 11, 2020 2:02 pm.
WASHINGTON — The Latest on Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden’s selection of California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate (all times local):
4:50 p.m.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is praising his “dear friend” and fellow Californian Kamala Harris after Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden selected the senator as his running mate.
Garcetti is one of Biden’s campaign co-chairs and a co-chair of the search committee that helped Biden navigate his options before making Harris the first Black woman to join a U.S. major party national ticket.
The mayor notes in a statement that he and Harris “have been friends for many years,” recalling their work together on then-Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008. Obama went on to select Biden as his vice-presidential running mate.
Garcetti calls Harris a “true ally” for people “who have needed a voice within the corridors of power.”
Should Biden win in November and Harris take office as vice-president, Garcetti would be eyed as a potential successor for her Senate seat.
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4:40 p.m.
President Donald Trump’s campaign is blasting Joe Biden’s vice-presidential pick, calling Sen. Kamala Harris “phony.”
In a statement, Trump adviser Katrina Pierson says Harris “will abandon her own morals, as well as try to bury her record as a prosecutor, in order to appease the anti-police extremists controlling the Democrat Party.”
Pierson says Harris has “gleefully embraced the left’s radical manifesto, calling for trillions of dollars in new taxes and backing Bernie Sanders’ government takeover of healthcare.”
Pierson calls Harris “proof that Joe Biden is an empty shell being filled with the extreme agenda of the radicals on the left.”
For weeks, Trump’s campaign promised an aggressive response against whomever was selected by Biden as his running mate.
Says Pierson, “At the ballot box, Americans will resoundingly reject the abysmal failures of Biden-Harris in favour of the America First strength of President Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence.”
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4:17 p.m.
Joe Biden has chosen California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate. It’s a move that fulfills the wish of Democrats clamouring to see a woman of colour on a major party’s presidential ticket for the first time in history.
The 55-year-old Harris was elected to the Senate in 2016 after serving as California’s attorney general. Harris competed against Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination but left the race before voting began as she struggled to raise money.
One of Harris’ standout moments of her presidential campaign came at the expense of Biden, when she slammed his past opposition to school busing.
The Associated Press
