WASHINGTON: US vice-president Kamala Harris has pretty much wrapped the Democratic nomination for the Presidential election well before a formal process and the party convention on August 19, belying expectation in some quarters of internecine warfare.
The party’s senior leadership, lawmakers, donors, activists, backroom operatives, and most of all the nearly 4000 delegates who will formally vote for the nomination early August quickly lined up behind Kamala after a day of tumult when President Joe Biden bowed out of the race on Sunday.
The nomination was bequeathed and blessed by the President himself when Kamala traveled to the Democratic campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden’s home state, on Monday to literally inherit the campaign.
Secluded because of Covid at his beach home nearby, Biden phoned in to event to thank his campaign staff and ask them to support Kamala with “every bit of your heart and soul.”
“The name has changed at the top of the ticket, but the mission hasn’t changed at all. We still need to save this democracy. Trump is… a danger to the nation,” Biden said, repeatedly asserting that he’s “not going anywhere” and he will begin campaigning for Kamala once he recovers from Covid.
“I’m watching you kid, I love you,” Biden said, cutting in when Kamala was recalling how she and husband Doug regarded the President and his wife Dr Jill Biden as family.
Asserting that “we made the right decisions…we have a great great candidate,” Biden urged his campaign staff and party workers to “embrace her…she’s the best.”
It has been a remarkable turnaround for the US vice-president, who only a few months ago was under pressure for what many party activists saw as a lackluster performance, with some even suggesting she should be jettisoned from the ticket and Biden should pick a new running mate.
But within 48 hours of Biden’s exit from the race, the atmosphere has been transformed, with a palpable surge of energy and vitality — not to speak of money — flowing into the campaign.
The campaign has raised a record $ 81 million since Biden quit, with donors and contributors re-opening the money spigot after what some operatives termed as a “Dembargo” to pressure the President into bowing out.
In her remarks, Kamala, fired up by the handover and a turnaround showing her now fighting the oldest presidential candidate in US history (Trump), immediately drew a contrast with her 78-year old opponent, accusing him of wanting to “take our country backwards to a time before many of our fellow Americans had full freedoms and rights.”
“We believe in a brighter future that makes room for all Americans. Over the next 106 days, we are going to take our case to the American people, and we are going to win,” she said.
Referring to her career as a courtroom prosecutor and attorney general of career before she became a senator and vice-president, Kamala threw out a warning to Trump.
“In those roles I took on perpetrators of all kinds…Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type,” she said.
The dramatic turnaround on the Democratic side has enraged Trump and his MAGA flock, who flooded the social media platform X, owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk, with posts about Biden’s purported death, Kamala’s coup, and a raft of ugly racist rants.
The party’s senior leadership, lawmakers, donors, activists, backroom operatives, and most of all the nearly 4000 delegates who will formally vote for the nomination early August quickly lined up behind Kamala after a day of tumult when President Joe Biden bowed out of the race on Sunday.
The nomination was bequeathed and blessed by the President himself when Kamala traveled to the Democratic campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden’s home state, on Monday to literally inherit the campaign.
Secluded because of Covid at his beach home nearby, Biden phoned in to event to thank his campaign staff and ask them to support Kamala with “every bit of your heart and soul.”
“The name has changed at the top of the ticket, but the mission hasn’t changed at all. We still need to save this democracy. Trump is… a danger to the nation,” Biden said, repeatedly asserting that he’s “not going anywhere” and he will begin campaigning for Kamala once he recovers from Covid.
“I’m watching you kid, I love you,” Biden said, cutting in when Kamala was recalling how she and husband Doug regarded the President and his wife Dr Jill Biden as family.
Asserting that “we made the right decisions…we have a great great candidate,” Biden urged his campaign staff and party workers to “embrace her…she’s the best.”
It has been a remarkable turnaround for the US vice-president, who only a few months ago was under pressure for what many party activists saw as a lackluster performance, with some even suggesting she should be jettisoned from the ticket and Biden should pick a new running mate.
But within 48 hours of Biden’s exit from the race, the atmosphere has been transformed, with a palpable surge of energy and vitality — not to speak of money — flowing into the campaign.
The campaign has raised a record $ 81 million since Biden quit, with donors and contributors re-opening the money spigot after what some operatives termed as a “Dembargo” to pressure the President into bowing out.
In her remarks, Kamala, fired up by the handover and a turnaround showing her now fighting the oldest presidential candidate in US history (Trump), immediately drew a contrast with her 78-year old opponent, accusing him of wanting to “take our country backwards to a time before many of our fellow Americans had full freedoms and rights.”
“We believe in a brighter future that makes room for all Americans. Over the next 106 days, we are going to take our case to the American people, and we are going to win,” she said.
Referring to her career as a courtroom prosecutor and attorney general of career before she became a senator and vice-president, Kamala threw out a warning to Trump.
“In those roles I took on perpetrators of all kinds…Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type,” she said.
The dramatic turnaround on the Democratic side has enraged Trump and his MAGA flock, who flooded the social media platform X, owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk, with posts about Biden’s purported death, Kamala’s coup, and a raft of ugly racist rants.