Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, is Joe Biden’s pick to be his running mate.
From an email: “I’ve decided that Kamala Harris is the best person to help me take this fight to Donald Trump and Mike Pence and then to lead this nation starting in January 2021.”
Joe Biden’s Statement:
You make a lot of important decisions as president. But the first one is who you select to be your Vice President. I’ve decided that Kamala Harris is the best person to help me take this fight to Donald Trump and Mike Pence and then to lead this nation starting in January 2021.
These aren’t normal times. For the first time in our history, we’re facing three historic crises — all at the same time. We’re facing the worst pandemic in 100 years. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The most powerful calls for racial justice in a generation. And we have a president who has both failed to lead on the virus — costing lives and decimating our economy — and fanned the flames of hate and division.
I need someone working alongside me who is smart, tough, and ready to lead. Kamala is that person.
I need someone who understands the pain that so many people in our nation are suffering. Whether they’ve lost their job, their business, a loved one to this virus. This president says he “doesn’t want to be distracted by it”. He doesn’t understand that taking care of the people of this nation — all the people — isn’t a distraction — it’s the job. Kamala understands that.
I need someone who understands that we are in a battle for the soul of this nation. And that if we’re going to get through these crises — we need to come together and unite for a better America. Kamala gets that.
If I’m President, I’m committed to making things better — not just in the short term, but sustainably, structurally, and permanently. We won’t have time to delay. I need a partner who can help deliver on those promises, and quickly.
I was privileged to serve this nation for two terms as Vice President alongside President Obama, a man of extraordinary character who I believe will go down in history as one of our great presidents. So, I know a thing or two about being Vice President. More than anything, I know it can’t be a political decision. It has to be a governing decision. If the people of this nation entrust me and Kamala with the office of President and Vice President for the next four years, we’re going to inherit a nation in crisis, a nation divided, and a world in disarray. We won’t have a minute to waste.
That’s what led me to Kamala Harris.
As a United States Senator from California, Kamala represents the biggest state in the union. She’s been one of the toughest and most effective Senators on two of the most important committees in the Senate — Intelligence and Judiciary. Two committees that have directly dealt with some of the most important issues facing this nation at home and around the world.
She sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, where she deals with the nation’s most sensitive threats.
We’ve all watched her hold the Trump administration accountable for its corruption, stand up to a Justice Department that’s run amok, and be a powerful voice against their extreme nominations.
She’s been a leader on criminal justice and marriage equality. And she has focused like a laser on the racial disparities as a result of the coronavirus.
As California’s Attorney General, she led one of the biggest legal departments in the nation — where she was a powerful advocate for people in taking on the big banks and protecting women and kids from abuse. She’s delivered billions in settlement money to consumers, taking on companies for fraud, pollution and abuse.
I first met Kamala through my son Beau. They were both Attorneys General at the same time. He had enormous respect for her and her work. I thought a lot about that as I made this decision. There is no one’s opinion I valued more than Beau’s and I’m proud to have Kamala standing with me on this campaign.
Her record of accomplishment — fighting tooth and nail for what’s right — is why I’m choosing her. There is no door Kamala won’t knock on, no stone she’ll leave unturned, if it means making life better — for the people.
So join me today in welcoming Kamala Harris to our team.
She will wake up every day — like I will — thinking about how to make life better for people. How to rebuild our country back better. How to make it more just. How to win the next fight in the battle for the soul of this nation.
Because that’s what the Presidency — and the Vice Presidency — is. It’s a duty to care: for you, for all of us. This will be the fight of our administration, and there’s no better partner that I could have asked for.
So glad for this choice. She’s going to use Mike Pence as a cat toy in the debate.
To support our ticket, Our DelDem Party needs to aggressively push the EC to install CONVENIENT, drive by ballot drop boxes, bolted to concrete with security cams if necessary, not make people park, walk into lobbies and drop. This is more than a crisis …..it is a fucking screaming crisis with the Postal sabotage.
Don’t know where you live, Stan, but here in North Wilmington the Talleyville (19803) post office on Concord Pike has a secure drive-by collection box, as well as an outdoor walk-up box. The Edgemoor (19809, 19810) and Claymont (19703) post offices have secure outdoor collection boxes, and the main post office on Quigley Blvd. at Hares Corner has secure drive-by collection boxes.
I agree that Trump and his stooge postmaster general are trying to sabotage the postal system, but bogus “cost-cutting” moves and removal of sorting equipment appear to be a much bigger problem than collection boxes.
I’m talking about non Postal ballot drop boxes from our Election Commission, currently placing them inside govt. buildings !!!!!!!
Speaking of EC drop boxes, good on them for having one outside at the Lisa Drive location for New Castle voters. But, one has to ask, at least rhetorically, is there voter suppression going on in the City of Wilmington, intended or otherwise? Their choice is to park, pay, walk and drop inside the Carvel Bldg, or ride an elevator up four floors to drop in an office. Not nearly as convenient as the other location or one I say pictured in Kent County. My alert on this to my State Senator, State Rep., City Council President and my Ward City Council person has yielded so far…..one “out of office until Aug. 24, call my Aide”, which I did, with no response. Guess I’m just a cranky old alarmist.
Why is that voter suppression? Until this election, the option to drop off an absentee ballot on the 4th floor of Carvel has bot only been available, but something of a tradition for some for longer than I’ve lived here. The boxes that the DoE has placed are in locations where they can monitor their security. For Carvel, the first floor has multiple levels of security that can watch activity at the box. Not so out on the corner.
If I had my way the boxes would be at DMV and State Service enters. I get the security issue but maybe there is a safe and secure compromise? I hate to use “unprecedented” but we are in a bit of uncharted water:) I have in the past used the 4th floor and I always enjoyed it.
Respectfully, is is suppression because EC drop box locations for others such as Lisa Dr. and Dover, both at least outside, gives some categories of voters more convenience than others, such as city dwellers, many of whom will have to pay to park if they’re lucky enough to have a car, while county and Kent voters at least can park for free. Thus, some more advantaged/convenienced than others=suppression. Sen. Lockman agrees with me and is pursuing the issue with EC.
That’s remarkable. City dwellers need to go into that building for other business that is not vote. I object to spinning up alarmist language for a thing that has been habit here for a long time. The security of these boxes is vital. The Warehouse box is in easy view of the person at the desk. Just wish you’d make this argument on convenience which is what you are arguing for rather than insisting that this entire business is somehow nefarious. Because it isn’t. And it is not useful for the trust in this process to continue to make this argument.
P.S. Cassandra: very much hoping the Party will develop an initiative via GOTV/Coordinated campaign and maybe some RD’s/Ward organizations to help those who are limited in transportation, disabled, old or not close to these (and hopefully more EC drop sites) get their ballots dropped by helpers in this fashion if they are not close to a site or not comfortable with mail deadlines. This is what Parties do…..damned near anything legal to help people vote.
There it is again. “That’s the way we’ve always done it” sort of idea. I prefer to think how we can do it better. And I gave the benefit of the doubt that this may not be intentional. But it still limits, thus suppresses.
What a strange thing to worry about in a cobalt-blue state. The problem here isn’t voter suppression, Stan, it’s that Democrats act like Republicans. It’s that you vote for a Democrat and you get Republican policies.
No it isn’t. It is a statement of the tradeoffs involved and an objection to the unnecessarily overcooked language designed to try to manipulate people. If these boxes being on the 4th floor were not voter suppression in 2018 or any time prior, why are they now? The boxes are clearly not locked, clearly small enough to move easily. Instead of spinning up voter suppression how if you tell the DoE how they can move these boxes to the street and keep them secure? Because if they moved these boxes to the street you’d be whinging about the insecurity of these boxes.
Better yet, call Oregon, Wash., Utah or Colo . How they secure boxes. They have figured it out.
What I’m here for is this — voter suppression is not about you being slightly inconvenienced here. You could put your ballot in the mail. You could show up to vote. All of these things require *some* effort and after having a box that people found a way to use for years, we suddenly find it is voter suppression because a white man finds the location of the box inconvenient to him. This is what voter suppression looks like: Tennessee adopts new law that could strip some protesters of voting rights
The Delaware Department of Elections is working overtime to accommodate a VBM system that asks them to send out applications for ballots AND to staff up every single polling place. You should recall that the law that authorizes this is only for this year’s elections. TEMPORARY. And any additional funding is likely going to the return postage.
Stop appropriating voter suppression for your convenience. Get busy advocating for Gerald Brady’s HB 175 that would make Vote by Mail (or Drop off) a permanent feature of Delaware elections so that the DoE can make the kind of long term investments and decisions that might make the process cleaner for everyone.
Different state but I drove my mail in ballot to one of the 3 election offices in my county and handed it to one of the 2 poll workers outside the building who dropped it in the collection box and I drove off never exiting my car. Could not have been easier or more secure. Like Stan said doing it the way it has always been done is a conservative principle while finding better ways of accomplishing the same thing is progressive.