Barack Obama couldn’t be more thrilled with Joe Biden’s choice for vice president. Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, announced Kamala Harris as his running mate on Tuesday, making her the first Black woman on a major party presidential ticket.
Obama, who was the first Black candidate to win the designation of a major party in a United States presidential election, said Biden — his former vice president — “nailed this decision” with Harris.
“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. Someone whose focus goes beyond self-interest to consider the lives and prospects of others,” Obama wrote on Instagram.
“@JoeBiden nailed this decision. By choosing Senator @KamalaHarris as America’s next vice president, he’s underscored his own judgment and character,” he continued. “Reality shows us that these attributes are not optional in a president. They’re requirements of the job. And now Joe has an ideal partner to help him tackle the very real challenges America faces right now and in the years ahead.”
Obama went on to note his own relationship with Harris, whom he’s known “for a long time.” “She is more than prepared for the job. She’s spent her career defending our Constitution and fighting for folks who need a fair shake,” he said. “Her own life story is one that I and so many others can see ourselves in: a story that says that no matter where you come from, what you look like, how you worship, or who you love, there’s a place for you here. It’s a fundamentally American perspective, one that’s led us out of the hardest times before. And it’s a perspective we can all rally behind right now.”
“Michelle and I couldn’t be more thrilled for Kamala, Doug, Cole, and Ella. This is a good day for our country. Now let’s go win this thing,” Obama concluded.
Harris is the third-ever female VP nominee for a major party, the second Black candidate in history and first Black woman in history on a major party presidential ticket. Should she be elected, Harris will become the first-ever woman elected to one of the top two offices of the executive branch.
The daughter of immigrants — her mother from India and her father from Jamaica — Harris was born in Oakland, California, and has in the past defined herself as simply “an American.” She also makes history as the first Asian American woman on a major party ticket.
In announcing Harris as his running mate, Biden called her “a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants.”
