FILE - In this July 31, 2019, file photo, then-Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., listens as Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a Democratic presidential primary debate at the Fox Theatre in Detroit. Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden has chosen Harris as his running mate. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)US presidential elections 2020 LIVE news updates: Joe Biden named California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate on Tuesday, making history by selecting the first Black woman to compete on a major party’s presidential ticket and acknowledging the vital role Black voters will play in his bid to defeat President Donald Trump. He will today make his first appearance with Harris.
Following the development, former US president Barack Obama joined top Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, to praise Indian-American Senator Kamala Harris’ selection as the party’s vice presidential candidate in the November election, saying Joe Biden has “nailed this decision”.
Presumptive Democratic party presidential nominee Biden on Tuesday named 55-year-old Harris as his vice presidential running mate, making history by selecting the first black woman to compete on a major party’s presidential ticket.
On the other hand, US President Donald Trump Monday said that he wishes to host the Group of Seven (G-7) leading industrialised nations after the November presidential election and still wants to invite Russia, which was kicked out of the G-7 after it annexed Crimea.
US President Donald Trump and former US vice-president and Democratic nominee Joe Biden. (Reuters)
US Senator Kamala Harris' nomination as the vice presidential candidate is a "historic" moment but it is not a surprise at all, her proud uncle said here on Wednesday.
Gopalan Balachandran, Harris' maternal uncle, said she will script many firsts if she wins and expressed the hope her top-level position will give Indians in the US "greater access" in interacting with the US administration.
"I am feeling very proud. Our family is feeling very proud. And if her mother was alive today, she would have felt supremely proud as she had tremendous influence on Kamala's life and career. But when her name came up, I wasn't surprised at all," Balachandran told PTI.
Joe Biden is making his first appearance with newly chosen running mate Kamala Harris on Wednesday, betting that the California senator’s historic profile and confrontational style against President Donald Trump will boost Democrats’ efforts to oust the Republican president amid cascading national crises.
The former primary rivals will appear at a high school near Biden’s Delaware home to discuss their shared vision for how to defeat Trump and then lead the country through a pandemic, its economic fallout and a long-simmering reckoning with systemic racism. Harris and Biden then will sit down together for an online fundraiser designed to let even small donors get a fresh glimpse of what the Democratic presidential ticket will look like together. (AP)
Former Rep. Jason Lewis has won Minnesota's five-way Republican primary for Senate. Lewis, a one-term congressman and former conservative radio host, had the name recognition and money to easily beat several challengers on Tuesday. Lewis has spent months on a mostly virtual campaign aimed at taking down Democratic Sen. Tina Smith.
He has been an outspoken critic of the state's coronavirus restrictions, and he has worked to tie Smith to what he calls "heavy-handed lockdown measures."
Smith is seeking election to her first full term since being appointed to replace Al Franken after Franken was caught up in sexual misconduct allegations. She won the Democratic primary Tuesday. (AP)
The mainstream US media on Wednesday ran rare banner headlines -- similar to the ones when Barack Obama was declared presidential nominee in 2008 -- hailing the decision of Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden to select Indian-origin Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate.
The Jamaican media too gave frontpage coverage to the selection of Harris, whose father is an African from Jamaica and mother an Indian, as the Democratic vice presidential nominee.
Biden, the 77-year-old former US vice president, will challenge incumbent Republican President Donald Trump, 74, in the November 3 election.
By naming the 55-year-old Harris, a lawyer and politician from California as his running mate on Tuesday, Biden made history by selecting the first Black woman to compete on a major party's presidential ticket.
Harris is currently the Senator from California and has been described as a trailblazer by former president Barack Obama. (AP)
Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota has survived a stiff Democratic primary challenge from a well-funded opponent who tried to make an issue of her national celebrity. Omar defeated Antone Melton-Meaux, an attorney and mediator who raised millions of dollars. The victory means Omar is nearly certain to easily win a second term in November in her solidly liberal 5th Congressional District.
Omar in 2018 became one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, building on a national profile that started when the onetime refugee from Somalia was elected to the Minnesota Legislature just two years earlier. (AP)
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a businesswoman who has expressed support for the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon and been criticised for a series of racist comments, has won the Republican nomination for Georgia's 14th Congressional District.
Greene beat neurosurgeon John Cowan in a primary runoff for the open seat on Tuesday in the deep-red district in northwest Georgia, despite several GOP officials denouncing her campaign after videos surfaced in which she expresses racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim views.
"WE WON! Thank you for your support! Save America. Stop Socialism," Greene tweeted late Tuesday. A video posted to her Twitter account of her victory party showed a room full of supporters gathered closely together. Few, if any, wore face masks to protect against the coronavirus. (AP)
Former US president Barack Obama has joined top Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, to praise Indian-American Senator Kamala Harris' selection as the party's vice presidential candidate in the November election, saying Joe Biden has "nailed this decision". Presumptive Democratic party presidential nominee Biden on Tuesday named 55-year-old Harris as his vice presidential running mate, making history by selecting the first black woman to compete on a major party's presidential ticket.
Harris, whose father is from Jamaica and mother an Indian, is currently the US Senator from California. "Choosing a vice president is the first important decision a president makes. When you're in the Oval Office, weighing the toughest issues, and the choice you make will affect the lives and livelihoods of the entire country - you need someone with you who's got the judgment and the character to make the right call," Obama said in a statement. (AP)
President Donald Trump said he was “a little surprised” that Democratic challenger Joe Biden selected Senator Kamala Harris of California as his running mate, saying she had been “nasty” to the former vice president in primary debates. “She was my number one pick” to run with Biden, Trump said at a Tuesday news conference.
Joe Biden named California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate on Tuesday, making history by selecting the first Black woman to compete on a major party’s presidential ticket and acknowledging the vital role Black voters will play in his bid to defeat President Donald Trump.
“I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked @KamalaHarris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate,” Biden tweeted. In a text message to supporters, Biden said, “Together, with you, we’re going to beat Trump.”
Democrats will seek to pitch presidential candidate Joe Biden as a steady, consensus-building figure at their virtual convention next week. But the unusual format will test Biden’s ability to project a cohesive message to a splintered electorate. (AP)
President Donald Trump's move to defer Social Security payroll taxes could be taking him into treacherous political territory. His directive - aimed at boosting an economy shaken by the coronavirus pandemic - doesn't affect retirement benefits but impacts how they're paid for. Democrats seized on it Monday as a signal that Trump would cut the social safety net and break a promise he made as a candidate in 2016 not to touch Social Security and Medicare. Some nonpartisan experts also expressed concerns. (AP)
US President Donald Trump Monday said that he wishes to host the Group of Seven (G-7) leading industrialised nations after the November presidential election and still wants to invite Russia, which was kicked out of the G-7 after it annexed Crimea.
“I’m much more inclined to do it sometime after the election,” Trump told reporters during a White House briefing, adding that due to the coronavirus pandemic, the meeting could be held in person or via teleconference.