U.S. presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden attended Wednesday a campaign event in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, together with Kamala Harris, his choice of Democratic vice presidential candidate, in what was the duo’s first public appearance as running mates. Postponed for several hours due to power outage on site, the event, held in a basketball venue, finally saw the former vice president and the senator from California walk out side by side, both donning masks. “I picked the right person to join me as the next vice president of the United States of America and that’s Senator Kamala Harris,” Biden said, praising the first African as well as South Asian-American woman to be nominated for vice president in a major party as being “smart,” “tough,” “experienced,” and “a proven fighter for the backbone of this country — the middle class.” Sitting next to the podium and keeping social distance with Biden as he spoke, Harris, however, took off the mask as she listened to Biden, who spoke without wearing the mask either. Biden in his remarks pledged that a “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris administration will have a comprehensive plan to meet the challenge of COVID-19 and turn the corner on this pandemic,” adding that they will adhere to “masking, clear science-based guidance,” meanwhile “dramatically scaling up testing, getting states and local governments the resources they need to open the schools and businesses safely.” Harris, the daughter of a Jamaican immigrant father and an Indian immigrant mother, later took to the podium saying she was “incredibly honored by this responsibility” of the vice presidency, and that she was “ready to work.” The 55-year-old said she was “so mindful of all the heroic and ambitious women before me whose sacrifice, determination and resilience make my presence here today even possible.” The California Democrat, who Tuesday emerged from about 10 women finalists to become Biden’s vice presidential pick, bluntly blamed President Donald Trump for his “mismanagement” of the coronavirus, claiming that as a result of Trump’s failures, “our economy has taken one of the biggest hits out of all the major industrialized nations.” Recalling how her parents met each other while protesting for civil rights in Oakland, California, in the 1960s, Harris said her mom and dad would bring her to protests as a little girl “strapped tightly in my stroller.” Being someone who spent most of her political career as a prosecutor, Harris suggested that it was the family tradition that made her devote her life to “making real the words carved into the United State Supreme Court: Equal justice under law.” While Biden said he and Harris “were in a battle for the soul of the nation,” Harris said the moment right now “is a moment of real consequence for America,” encouraging voters to “vote like never before because we need more than a victory on November 3rd.” The daughter of an Indian-born mother and Jamaican-born father, Harris was among the most experienced candidates on Biden’s shortlist. Harris has a uniquely American biography: Her mother was a widely respected breast cancer researcher who immigrated to the United States from India in the 1960s. Her father, Donald Harris, is an eminent economist who spent much of his career at Stanford University. Also an immigrant, Donald moved to the United States from Jamaica around the time his future wife came from India. A former career prosecutor, Harris was the first woman to serve as San Francisco district attorney from 2004 to 2011 and the first woman to serve as California attorney general from 2011 to 2017, before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016. Harris, who grew up in Oakland, announced her run for the presidency in January 2019. She suspended her campaign in December citing a lack of funding. She is well known for her sometimes aggressive questioning style in the Senate. Her history as a prosecutor has drawn some criticism amid calls for policing reform. One of her most notable cases was in questioning Brett Kavanaugh during his 2018 Supreme Court confirmation hearing. As a presidential candidate, she also took Biden to task in a nationally televised debate over his past stances on mandatory busing for students as a means to desegregate schools. Some advisers of Biden said the attacks made them question whether she would be a trusted working partner because of her political ambitions. While this exchange failed to boost her White House hopes, the Biden campaign will now look for her to train her prosecutorial fire on Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Harris at times came under criticism from some in the Black community and from progressive advocates for her record as California attorney general where, they say, she did not do enough to investigate police shootings and too often sided with prosecutors in wrongful conviction cases. Her defenders say she has always been reform-minded and point to her record in the Senate, where she has championed a police-reform bill and an anti-lynching bill, among other measures. Harris herself has said she became a prosecutor in order to bring a more progressive approach to the office. She has knocked down barriers throughout her career. She recently was a co-author of a Senate bill to ban police chokeholds, among other steps. Harris pushed for her own version of Medicare for All, though the progressive wing of the Democratic Party pointed out her plan included a more phased rollout and incorporated private insurers. In July, she announced a plan to address the soaring cost of prescription drugs by having the federal government set a “fair price,” as a way to tackle rising drug prices. Harris is married to attorney Douglas Emhoff, having wed in August 2014 in Santa Barbara, California. The couple does not have any children, but Harris is stepmother to Cole and Ella, her husband’s two children from his previous marriage. As of August 2019, Harris and her husband had an estimated net worth of US$5.8 million. Her selection is seen by Chinese observers as an apparent move by Biden to win over left-wing and Black voters, as social unrest over racial injustice against Black Americans has rocked the country for months. Harris once gave herself a Chinese name, He Jinli, which translates to “intricate and beautiful,” while the surname means “celebrate.” But this should not be misinterpreted as goodwill toward China. The senator has been vocal in her criticisms of China on multiple issues, including Xinjiang and Hong Kong. She criticized China in 2019 for its so-called “re-education camps” in Xinjiang, and said China failed to “respect the rights and autonomy of Hong Kong’s people” and that the Hong Kong government used excessive force “against peaceful protestors,” referring to the riots that engulfed the city for months in 2019. Her latest attack on China includes writing a letter with U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand urging the Trump administration to respond to an “alarming” AP investigation claiming that the Chinese Government is taking measures to slash birth rates among Uygurs and other minorities. She jointly launched the Uygur Human Rights Policy Act in 2019, and urged several U.S. investigation agencies to probe China’s “suppression” of Uygurs. In October 2019, she announced her support for the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. “Harris’ nomination will only add fuel to the fire of the two parties’ competitive playing of the China card, and to acting tough on China during their election campaign,” Zhang Tengjun, assistant research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, said. The observer said that based on the positive response to Biden’s decision, Team Trump may escalate its “irrational” antagonism against China for the next few months, just to win more attention and attempt to salvage its declining campaign. Trump said he was “a little surprised” that Biden selected Harris as his running mate, saying she had been “nasty” to the former vice president in primary debates. “I thought she was the meanest, the most horrible, the most disrespectful of anybody in the U,S. Senate,” Trump said.(SD-Agencies) | 