Kamala Harris pays tribute to Biden in brief speech

The Democratic party’s new presumptive nominee for president, vice president Kamala Harris, told the nation she was ‘deeply grateful’ for president Joe Biden in her first remarks since he announced his decision yesterday not to stand for reelection and to endorse her in the 2024 presidential election.

‘Joe Biden’s legacy of accomplishment over the past three years is unmatched in modern history… yes, you may clap,” Harris said, in an address at the White House honouring NCAA athletes.

But she pointedly did not discuss her own future or her nascent campaign. Her aim, it seems, was to show her commitment to service – doing her job as vice president, not as a presidential candidate. Service was the leitmotif of her brief remarks – to be expected, given how she was speaking in her official capacity as vice president.

‘I am first-handed witness that every day Joe Biden fights for the American people and we are deeply, deeply grateful for his service to our nation’, she said.