Obama hails Biden’s pick for Vice Presidency
Former president of the United States of America, Barack Obama has pitched his opinion on Joe Biden’s announcement that California Senator Kamala Harris will be his running mate, saying that Biden “nailed this decision.”
“Choosing a vice president is the first important decision a president makes. When you’re in the Oval Office, weighing the toughest issues, and the choice you make will affect the lives and livelihoods of the entire country — you need someone with you who’s got the judgment and the character to make the right call,” Obama said in a statement.
Obama, who served in the Oval Office for two terms, with Biden as his Vice President, said that Biden’s choosing of Harris underscores “his own judgment and character” — attributes that are “requirements of the job” of president.
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“I’ve known Senator Harris for a long time. She is more than prepared for the job,” Obama said.
Harris is the first Black woman and the first South Asian woman to be picked as a vice presidential candidate for a major party in the U.S. Before serving in the US senate, she was California’s attorney general and also served as district attorney in San Francisco.
President Obama further expressed a vicarious connection with Harris’ life story as “one that I and so many others can see ourselves in.”
Harris, 55, was born to immigrants. Her mother was a Tamil breast cancer scientist who moved to the U.S. from India in 1960 to study at the University of California, Berkeley. Her father, who is from Jamaica, moved to the U.S. the following year to also attend Berkeley, and later became a professor at Stanford University.
“[It’s] a story that says that no matter where you come from, what you look like, how you worship, or who you love, there’s a place for you here,” Obama said. “It’s a fundamentally American perspective, one that’s led us out of the hardest times before. And it’s a perspective we can all rally behind right now.”
“This is a good day for our country,” Obama concluded. “Now let’s go win this thing.”
In her response to being named as running mate by the Democrat predidential candidate, Harris hailed Biden as a great public servant who is dedicated to unifying the country and building an America of everyone’s dreams. She described it an honour to be drafted into the Biden Project.
“Joe Biden can unify the American people because he’s spent his life fighting for us. And as president, he’ll build an America that lives up to our ideals” she said.
