White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, stressed that no one is more qualified than US Vice President Kamala Harris to become the presidential candidate from the Democratic Party.
Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday (local time) that Kamala Harris has been the vice president for more than four years.
Addressing a White House briefing, he said, “The Vice President (Kamala Harris) has been the Vice President for more than four years. I don’t see anyone more qualified than her for this position at this time. She was a senator. She was an attorney general…”
Jean-Pierre said Kamala Harris was a partner with the president, and said President Joe Biden was proud to make this decision.
“I have listed what she has achieved in the last three-and-a-half, almost four years, which is a phenomenal record. She was a partner in this with the President. This is a decision that this President has taken, and I think he (US President Joe Biden) is proud to have made this decision…”, he said.
Over the past 3.5 years as vice president, Harris has visited more than 19 countries and met with more than 150 foreign leaders, according to the White House website.
According to information available on the White House website, he has visited more than 19 countries and met more than 150 foreign leaders.
The US presidential election will be held on November 5 and Biden was contesting for re-election as the Democratic Party’s candidate. Democrats pressured him to withdraw from the race after his June 27 debate with Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Subsequently, on July 21, Biden formally announced that he was abandoning plans to seek a second term and endorsing his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, for the election.
Meanwhile, Harris has rapidly garnered support among Democrats and has secured enough delegates to become the presumptive Democratic nominee. Democrats have adopted the rules the party will use to choose its presidential nominee, with voting to officially nominate Harris likely to begin on August 1.
Harris will need to secure the support of a majority of delegates at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago in August.
Under rules approved by the Democratic National Convention’s rules panel on Wednesday, presidential candidates must formally declare their candidacy by Saturday evening and submit at least 300 delegate signatures by Tuesday, July 30, with no more than 50 delegate signatures from a state counting, CNN reported.
Voting will be done via electronic ballots, which will be sent to convention delegates. If only one candidate meets the petition requirements, which is likely considering how quickly the party has united around Harris, voting is expected to begin on August 1, though it will be up to party leaders to decide when voting begins and ends.
If more than one candidate meets these requirements, party leaders can set aside up to five days for candidates to make their case to delegates, CNN reports.
The party has said it aims to nominate presidential and vice presidential candidates by Aug. 7 to avoid the possibility of litigation over ballot access in Ohio.
Although the state has extended the deadline for political parties to submit their official candidates to September 1, the new law does not take effect until the end of August.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
