Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said that if he wins, he will appoint California Senator Kamala Harris as vice president.

“I decided that Kamala Harris is the most suitable person to help me fight Donald Trump and Mike Pence, and then, from January 2021, lead our country,” Biden said in an email to his supporters, the content of which quoted by the American media.

Harris herself confirmed the nomination, posting on Twitter a statement that it was Biden who would be able to unite US citizens.

“Joe Biden can unite the American people, because he fought for us all his life. By becoming president, he will build an America that lives up to our ideals. It is a great honor for me to join him as a candidate from our party for the post of vice-president, and I will do everything in my power to make him our commander-in-chief, ”the politician wrote.

. @ JoeBiden can unify the American people because he's spent his life fighting for us. And as president, he'll build an America that lives up to our ideals.

I'm honored to join him as our party's nominee for Vice President, and do what it takes to make him our Commander-in-Chief.

- Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 11, 2020

Commenting on his choice, Biden also recalled that while working in the Justice Department, Kamala Harris collaborated with his late son Bo Biden, who served as Attorney General of Delaware State. They both fought big banks, protected women and children from violence, and improved the plight of workers, Biden said.

Controversial candidate

Kamala Harris grew up in California in a mixed family of immigrants from India and Jamaica. She worked as the deputy district attorney for Alameda County in California, then became the first female district attorney for San Francisco, then the attorney general of California. In 2016, she was elected to the Senate as State Representative.

The election campaign of Harris, who ran for the presidency of the United States, started in January 2019. But despite the support from the liberal public, a number of American media outlets have come out with harsh criticism of Harris' candidacy, pointing to her controversial track record as a San Francisco prosecutor.

  • Joe Biden and Kamala Harris during the debate
  • Reuters
  • © Lucas Jackson

For example, in an article for The New York Times, published in January 2019, University of San Francisco law professor Lara Baselone noted that Harris did not support progressive reforms of the judicial system, and also defended sentences that were based on false testimony and fake evidence.

The report also claimed that Harris had defended convictions based on questionable testimony and evidence on a number of occasions, often changing her mind only after a case had been publicized in the press.

In addition, in 2015, the California attorney general opposed the adoption of a bill that required prosecutors to investigate gun incidents by police officers. She also opposed the establishment of a uniform standard for the use of body cameras by the police. For this, she was criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union and the public defender of the city of San Francisco.

However, in 2019, Kamala Harris managed to strengthen her position in the presidential race precisely thanks to criticism of Joe Biden.

During the first Democratic nominee debate in June 2019, Harris recalled Biden's controversial views on racial politics in the 1970s.

Extracts from Biden's working correspondence dated 1977, when he was first elected to the American Senate, were circulated in the American media. In those letters, young Senator Biden argued against the special transport of black students from disadvantaged areas to predominantly white schools.

After the debate, Biden vigorously rejected accusations that Harris did not support the civil rights of ethnic minorities in the United States, and said that there was no need to debate the past. In turn, in his campaign headquarters, criticism from Harris was regarded as a personal shift.

Despite a successful performance during the first debates, Kamala Harris was unable to consolidate her popularity and was forced to end the election campaign in December 2019.

In an interview with RT, Yuri Rogulyov, director of the Franklin Roosevelt Foundation for the Study of the United States at Moscow State University, noted that Harris is not a politician who enjoys support among Americans at the national level.

“She showed unremarkable results during the primaries. This demonstrates that she is not a charismatic politician. She repeatedly criticized Biden during the primaries and in all debates, behaved disrespectfully towards him, his experience and age. Those who worked with her have always noted that she is tough, quarrelsome, demanding, so it is not known how successful Biden's choice will be, ”the expert noted.

Republican reaction

Commenting on the nomination of Kamala Harris for the role of vice president, Donald Trump noted that it is "difficult for him to imagine that he (Joe Biden. - RT ) chose her."

"I was a little surprised that he chose her ... She said terrible things about Sleepy Joe," Trump said during a press conference at the White House, adding that Harris also "performed very badly in the primaries." ...

  • Kamala Harris and Joe Biden
  • © Aaron P. Bernstein / Getty Images / AFP

After that, Trump recalled the battle between politicians during the primaries, when Senator Harris "called Joe Biden a racist and demanded an apology, which she never received."

"The hypocritical Kamala is ready to abandon her own moral principles," - quotes Trump as the NBC channel.

The nomination of Kamala Harris was also criticized in the leadership of the Republicans. Ronna McDaniel, chairman of the National Committee of the Republican Party, made a sharp statement on this matter.

“The hiding, weakened and incoherent Joe Biden chose not just a candidate for vice-president, he chose the person who will actually lead the country for the next four years, if he somehow manages to win,” she quoted The Hill. She also noted that Harris' political position is "very different from that of most Americans."

HSE professor Alexander Domrin, commenting on the candidacy of the Californian senator, noted that the Democratic Party needs a candidate who will take the presidency if Joe Biden is unable to fulfill his duties.

“This choice demonstrates that the leadership of the Democratic Party has chosen Kamala Harris as a presidential candidate instead of Biden. You need to understand that if Trump loses in the upcoming elections, then in conditions of progressive dementia in Biden, it is Harris who will become the real president of the United States. Today her candidacy is suitable for all parameters of the Democratic Party, since she is a woman and represents the colored population, ”the expert emphasized.

But this decision is unlikely to affect the chances of Trump's campaign, since he has a close-knit electorate, the political scientist added.

“Today, the last thing he needs is to change his strategy, so he should support Biden's choice and after that wait for a reasonable decision by the American people,” says Alexander Domrin.

In turn, Yuri Rogulev noted that Harris is an acceptable candidate for the role of vice president for the Democratic Party.

“If Biden wins the election, Kamala Harris will be the first woman of color to take over as vice president. She was selected for this position with an eye on the fact that Joe Biden, due to health, may not serve until the end of the first term as president, respectively, she will fulfill his duties. After that Harris will be able to run again for the presidency, ”the expert explained.

According to the political scientist, Trump has already outlined his position towards Harris, saying that she is a leftist politician, advocates raising taxes, cutting military spending and advocating the opening of all borders.

“But whether the voters will like it is a big question,” concluded Yuri Rogulyov.