‘I am ready to get to work’: Kamala Harris campaigns with Joe Biden for the first time

WILMINGTON — Sen. Kamala Harris on Wednesday assailed President Donald Trump’s “failure” to take the coronavirus seriously and said Democrats “need a mandate” from voters to turn the page on his presidency, as she and Joe Biden appeared together for the first time since Biden tapped Harris to be his running mate.

“I am ready to get to work,” Harris, a California Democrat, said as she joined the former vice president in the gymnasium at Alexis I. duPont High School in Wilmington, where Biden lives.

Harris, 55, a first-term senator and former attorney general of California, ran against Biden in the Democratic presidential primary but dropped out of the race before voting began. She was considered a front-runner to be Biden’s running mate, and Democrats hope the historic nature of her candidacy as the first Black woman and Asian American on a major-party presidential ticket will boost enthusiasm for the campaign. Biden said the campaign logged its best day in online fund-raising after he named Harris as his pick.

“Joe, I’m so proud to stand with you,” she said in a gathering where the traditional pomp and circumstance of a vice presidential rollout was replaced by a room full of socially distanced reporters. “I do so mindful of all the heroic and ambitious women before me, whose sacrifice, determination, and resilience makes my presence here today even possible.”

Biden introduced her as a “proven fighter” for the middle class who is ready to be vice president

“As a child of immigrants, she knows personally how immigrant families enrich our country as well as the challenges of what it means to grow up Black and Indian American in the United States of America,” Biden said, speaking in front of a display of American flags and flags representing the states, territories, and Washington, D.C.

Biden said “little Black and brown girls” who often feel overlooked and undervalued may now see themselves “for the first time in a new way, as the stuff of presidents and vice presidents.”

Their appearance came as the Trump campaign launched attacks on Harris as a “phony” and a tool of the “radical left,” though many progressives had hoped Biden would pick a more liberal candidate like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

“Biden calls himself a transition candidate,” a narrator says in one video released by the Trump campaign. “He is handing over the reins to Kamala while they jointly embrace the radical left. Slow Joe and Phony Kamala. Perfect together. Wrong for America.”

At the White House on Tuesday, Trump had described Harris as “nasty” for her treatment of Biden during the primary debates and her questioning of Brett Kavanaugh during his 2018 Supreme Court confirmation hearings — using the same derogatory language he aimed at Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Biden shot back on Wednesday. “Is anyone surprised Donald Trump has a problem with a strong woman, or strong women across the board?” he said.

With Biden and Harris set to be formally nominated by Democrats during the party’s virtual convention next week, Trump planned his own counterprogramming with trips to battleground states — including a visit to Biden’s childhood hometown of Scranton next Thursday, the same day Biden is scheduled to accept the presidential nomination.

While Wednesday’s rollout wasn’t a public event, supporters still showed up hours early in Wilmington, with some waiting through a hailstorm for the chance for a peek at the new Democratic ticket.

“Harris is a good pick,” said Al Hopkins, 62, a retired engineer from Middletown, Del. “They need somebody strong and a fighter.”

Biden said Wednesday that he told Harris he wanted her to serve a similar role that Biden played as President Barack Obama’s second-in-command: “To be the last voice in the room, to always tell me the truth ... challenge my assumptions if she disagrees, ask the hard questions.”

Among the reasons Biden is believed to have selected Harris is her experience as a prosecutor and her ability to take on Trump and Vice President Mike Pence during the campaign — and on the debate stage. She offered a preview on Wednesday.

“The case against Donald Trump and Mike Pence is open-and-shut,” Harris said, accusing the administration of bungling the U.S. response to the coronavirus and failing to help millions of unemployed Americans.

“While other countries were flattening the curve,” Harris said, “[Trump] said the virus would just — poof! — go away, like a miracle.”

Biden and Harris also reflected on how they first crossed paths a decade ago, when Harris became friends with Biden’s son Beau — who before his 2015 death was Delaware’s state attorney general.

“They took on the same big fights together,” Biden said. “I know how much Beau respected Kamala and her work. That mattered a lot to me, to be honest with you, as I made this decision.”

Prominent Black Democrats in Pennsylvania said Tuesday that Black women, a key Democratic constituency, would be energized by the pick. Democrats hope that enthusiasm will increase turnout among Black voters, especially in cities like Philadelphia, to help Biden win Pennsylvania and other battleground states that propelled Trump to the presidency in 2016.

Biden is leading Trump in most national polls and in surveys of Pennsylvania and other key states.

“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.”

Trump and his allies on Wednesday targeted Harris’ record on issues that could resonate in battlegrounds. America First Action, a pro-Trump super PAC that is airing TV commercials in Pennsylvania attacking Biden on energy policy, highlighted Harris’ past remarks on fracking.

“There’s no question, I’m in favor of banning fracking,” Harris said in September during a CNN town hall.

Biden says he opposes a federal ban on fracking but wants to block the federal government from issuing new permits for drilling on public land.

And Trump repeated a warning that Biden would enable “low income housing” to “invade” suburban neighborhoods by enforcing a housing regulation adopted by the Obama administration.

“The ‘suburban housewife’ will be voting for me,” Trump tweeted. “They want safety & are thrilled that I ended the long running program where low income housing would invade their neighborhood.”

Housing experts have said Trump’s characterization of the rule is misleading and based in racist stereotypes about affordable housing. The president speculated that Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, a prominent Black Democrat who also ran in the primary, would be “in charge.”

Pennsylvania Reps. Madeleine Dean, Chrissy Houlahan, and Mary Gay Scanlon, all Democrats representing the Philadelphia suburbs, are hosting a virtual Biden event on Thursday — at which Trump’s characterization of the “suburban housewife” is likely to come up.