'Keep on marching': Biden & Harris stick to ‘stop Trump’ message in first public appearance together

Joe Biden has made his first joint appearance with running mate Kamala Harris, centering focus on the need to give the boot to Donald Trump while touting the California senator as the first woman of color on a major party ticket.

Biden introduced Harris as his running mate at a campaign event in Delaware on Wednesday, calling her the “right person” for the job who “knows how to make the hard calls.” Reiterating the ‘stop Trump’ theme that’s dominated his election bid, Biden vowed to clean up “the mess that President Trump and Vice President Pence have created, both at home and abroad, through four years of mismanagement and coddling of terrorists and thugs around the world.”

The Democratic candidate said the country needs “a president and a vice president willing to lead and take responsibility” on the Covid-19 crisis, adding that a future Biden administration would develop “a comprehensive plan to meet the challenge” of the virus.

Speaking after Biden, Harris took an even more aggressive line in prosecuting the Trump administration, also honing in on the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic.

[Trump’s] refusal to get testing up and running, his flip-flopping on social distancing and wearing masks. His delusional belief that he knows better than the experts. All of that is reason and the reason that an American dies of Covid-19 every 80 seconds

Harris also gave a nod to protesters who’ve voiced outrage in cities across the country over the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in May, noting how her parents met “in the streets of Oakland, marching and shouting for this thing called justice, in a struggle that continues today,” while calling on “every generation of Americans to keep on marching.”

Trump, who held a press conference shortly after the Biden-Harris campaign event, dubbed Harris “an unusual pick,” pointing to the fact that the senator seemed to have made an abrupt U-turn in her opinion of Biden after her failed primary bid.

There was nobody more insulting to Biden than she was, she said horrible things about him.

Biden announced Harris as his vice-presidential pick on Tuesday, after weeks of speculation that she was at the top of his short list. Though the selection is unlikely to make waves among moderate and center-leaning Democrats, the party’s progressive faction has been up in arms over the choice, pointing to Harris' career as a public prosecutor in California, some deeming her a ‘cop.’ Supporters have celebrated the decision for elevating a woman of color on the ticket, with Harris being born to Indian and Jamaican immigrants, though she identifies simply as “American.”

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