Joe Biden Names Sen. Kamala Harris As Pick For Vice President

WASHINGTON, D.C. (CBS13/AP) - Joe Biden has chosen California Senator Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate. If elected, Harris will be the first woman to hold the position.

Two women have been nominated as running mates on major party tickets: Democrat Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Republican Sarah Palin in 2008. Their parties lost in the general election.

Biden's announcement comes as no surprise after Biden, the Democratic White House nominee, was photographed at a July 28 press conference holding notes with Harris' name was scrawled across the top, followed by five talking points: "Do not hold grudges." "Campaigned with me & Jill." "Talented." "Great help to campaign." "Great respect for her."

Biden has praised Harris publicly and said that he's thought highly of her personally and professionally after she became close to his late son, Beau Biden, when both were state attorneys general.

Sen. Harris said she's honored to join him as the VP nominee and that she'd do what it takes to get him elected as president.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom heaped praise on Biden for choosing Harris as his running mate.

"Principled. Brilliant. Compassionate. Empathetic. Honest. The perfect choice for [Joe Biden]," Newsom tweeted.

President Trump less than two weeks ago said that Sen. Kamala Harris would be a "fine choice." He made the comment in response to a question about veepstakes as he was leaving the White House on July 29.

Asked how he'd rate Harris as a vice president, Trump said, "I think she'd be a fine choice, Kamala Harris. She'd be a fine choice."

However, shortly after Biden's announcement, Trump quickly tweeted a campaign ad that dismisses Harris as "phony" and says she and Biden "jointly embrace the radical left."

Harris won her first election in 2003 when she became San Francisco's district attorney. In the role, she created a reentry program for low-level drug offenders and cracked down on student truancy.

She was elected California's attorney general in 2010, the first woman and Black person to hold the job, and focused on issues including the foreclosure crisis. She declined to defend the state's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage and was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

As her national profile grew, Harris built a reputation around her work as a prosecutor. After being elected to the Senate in 2016, she quickly gained attention for her assertive questioning of Trump administration officials during congressional hearings. In one memorable moment last year, Harris tripped up Attorney General William Barr when she repeatedly pressed him on whether Trump or other White House officials pressured him to investigate certain people.

Harris launched her presidential campaign in early 2019 with the slogan "Kamala Harris For the People," a reference to her courtroom work. She was one of the highest-profile contenders in a crowded Democratic primary and attracted 20,000 people to her first campaign rally in Oakland.

But the early promise of her campaign eventually faded. Her law enforcement background prompted skepticism from some progressives, and she struggled to land on a consistent message that resonated with voters. Facing fundraising problems, Harris abruptly withdrew from the race in December 2019, two months before the first votes of the primary were cast.

One of Harris' standout moments of her presidential campaign came at the expense of Biden. During a debate, Harris said Biden made "very hurtful" comments about his past work with segregationist senators and slammed his opposition to busing as schools began to integrate in the 1970s.

"There was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day," she said. "And that little girl was me."

Shaken by the attack, Biden called her comments "a mischaracterization of my position."

The exchange resurfaced recently one of Biden's closest friends and a co-chair of his vice presidential vetting committee, former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, still harbors concerns about the debate and that Harris hadn't expressed regret. The comments attributed to Dodd and first reported by Politico drew condemnation, especially from influential Democratic women who said Harris was being held to a standard that wouldn't apply to a man running for president.

Some Biden confidants said Harris' campaign attack did irritate the former vice president, who had a friendly relationship with her. Harris was also close with Biden's late son, Beau, who served as Delaware attorney general while she held the same post in California.

But Biden and Harris have since returned to a warm relationship.

"Joe has empathy, he has a proven track record of leadership and more than ever before we need a president of the United States who understands who the people are, sees them where they are, and has a genuine desire to help and knows how to fight to get us where we need to be," Harris said at an event for Biden earlier this summer.

At the same event, she bluntly attacked Trump, labeling him a "drug pusher" for his promotion of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the coronavirus, which has not been proved to be an effective treatment and may even be more harmful. After Trump tweeted "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" in response to protests about the death of George Floyd, a Black man, in police custody, Harris said his remarks "yet again show what racism looks like."

Harris has taken a tougher stand on policing since Floyd's killing. She co-sponsored legislation in June that would ban police from using chokeholds and no-knock warrants, set a national use-of-force standard and create a national police misconduct registry, among other things. It would also reform the qualified immunity system that shields officers from liability.

The list included practices Harris did not vocally fight to reform while leading California's Department of Justice. Although she required DOJ officers to wear body cameras, she did not support legislation mandating it statewide. And while she now wants independent investigations of police shootings, she didn't support a 2015 California bill that would have required her office to take on such cases.

"We made progress, but clearly we are not at the place yet as a country where we need to be and California is no exception," she told The Associated Press recently. But the national focus on racial injustice now shows "there's no reason that we have to continue to wait."

The vice presidential pick carries increased significance this year. If elected, Biden would be 78 when he's inaugurated in January, the oldest man to ever assume the presidency. He's spoken of himself as a transitional figure and hasn't fully committed to seeking a second term in 2024. If he declines to do so, his running mate would likely become a front-runner for the nomination that year.

(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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