Biden, Harris pledge a strong challenge to Trump and a path out of crisis

Joseph R Biden Jr and Senator Kamala Harris made their debut as running mates in a high school gymnasium on Wednesday, pledging to lead the country out of the coronavirus crisis amid an onslaught of attacks from US President Trump as the two national tickets went head-to-head for the first time, less than three months before Election Day.
 

The first full day for the newly announced Democratic presidential ticket offered a glimpse of how two once-bitter rivals from opposite coasts and different generations will try to unite Americans around their platform. Projecting warmth toward each other, they sketched out a vision of recovery from the nation’s crises surrounding public health, the economy and racial injustice — challenges that, they argued, Trump has made worse at every turn with an extraordinarily divisive presidency.
 

Biden and Harris have attacked Trump as an incompetent leader who has left the US “in tatters”.
 

“We need more than a victory on November 3,” Harris said. “We need a mandate that proves that the past few years do not represent who we are or who we aspire to be.”
 

Harris, a Californian who once served as attorney general of the state, made clear that part of her campaign role would be demonstrating her skills as a prosecutor to build a case against Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, methodically detailing what she cast as the administration’s failures in combating the coronavirus, reopening the economy and creating conditions under which schools could reopen safely this fall. “Let me tell you, as somebody who has presented my fair share of arguments in court, the case against Donald Trump and Mike Pence is open and shut,” Harris said.
 

“I knew we were in the battle for the soul of the nation,” Biden said. “That’s when I decided to run. And I’m proud now to have Senator Harris at my side in that battle, because she shares the same intensity I do.” Harris, the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica, is the first woman of colour on a major party’s presidential ticket, and she and Biden argued that possibilities for American success stories abound despite the challenges that the nation confronts.
 

“Her story’s America’s story,” Biden said.
 

Trump, who has unleashed sexist attacks on Harris, called her “a very risky pick” at a news conference as he referred to “horrible things” she had said about Biden during the primary campaign, suggesting those words would haunt the ticket. “I’m sure that’ll be played back,” Trump said. “Not necessarily by me, but others. It’ll be played back.