Vice President Kamala Harris revealed how President Joe Biden informed her that he would be exiting the 2024 presidential race in her first sitdown interview since she became the Democratic nominee for president.
Harris held her first interview on CNN with her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, where they addressed everything from Harris changing her policy positions to attacks from Republicans on his military record.
Harris revealed to the network’s Dana Bash that the president told her he was stepping aside when she had invited family over.
“I’ll give you a little too much information,” she said. “My family was staying with us, and including my baby nieces, and we had just had pancakes, and, you know, ‘Auntie, can I have more bacon? Yes, I’ll make you more bacon.’ And then we were gonna sit, we were sitting down to do a puzzle, and the phone rang. And it was Joe Biden and he told me what he had decided to do.”
Harris said that she asked the president, who had received criticism for his poor performance during his debate with former president Donald Trump, if he was sure about the decision.
Shortly after Biden announced he would not run for re-election, he endorsed Harris, but the Vice President would not say whether she asked for his endorsement.
“He was very clear that he was going to support me,” she said. “My first thought was not about me, to be honest with you. My first thought was about him, to be honest.”
Harris said in the future, Americans would realise the major accomplishments the Biden presidency made such as infrastructure investments, new industries like semiconductors and rebuilding international alliances.
“And I think history is going to show not only has Joe Biden led an administration that has achieved those extraordinary successes, but the character of the man is one that he has been in his life and career, including as a president, quite selfless and puts the American people first,” she said.
Harris defended her current positions and repudiated suggestions that she would renege on her more centrist outlook on hot-button issues such as “fracking,” a way of extracting oil and gas from rock that is the core of the petroleum industry in the key swing state of Pennsylvania.
“I am running because I believe I am the best person to do this job at this moment for all Americans, regardless of race and gender,” Harris said.
Walz for his part responded to criticism that he had embellished his service in the National Guard and the fertility treatments he and his wife Gwen underwent to conceive children. Republican members of Congress and Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, have accused Walz of “stolen valour.”
Walz, who spent nearly a quarter-century as a member of the National Guard and retired as a master sergeant, has endured Republicans picking apart various details of his service in a hunt for dirt.
He has said he carried “weapons of war” during his hitch, which Republicans have taken as a lie about having served in a combat zone. The Harris campaign has also described Walz as a retired command sergeant major, a rank Walz did in fact achieve, but he technically left the service as a master sergeant.
Walz told Bash on Thursday that he “misspoke” about certain aspects of his time in the Guard, but that there was no doubt about the fact that he spent “24 years… wearing a uniform in this country.”
“My grammar’s not always correct,” Walz said, telling Bash that he was “super proud” of his military service.
Walz spent most of the interview sitting quietly to the side. But he reacted with quiet intensity when Bash asked about right-wing attacks on his son Gus, who has a non-verbal learning disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder apart from anxiety disorder. At the Democratic National Convention, a clip of the 17-year-old crying and shouting, “That’s my dad!” went viral, earning plaudits from many but derision and mockery from Trump fans.
“To have my son have a sense of pride in me… it was such a visceral and emotional moment that I’m grateful to have experienced,” Walz replied. “I’m so proud of him.”
It was a “moment to understand what was really important,” Walz said, noting that “life can be kind of hard.” But, he emphasised, “our politics can be better.”
As Walz pointed out, “[I]f it’s not this, it’s an attack on my children for showing love for me or it’s an attack on my dog. … And the one thing I’ll never do is, I’ll never demean another member’s service in any way. I never have. And I never will.”
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