US President Joe Biden on Wednesday recalled that it was on this day in 2020 that he had picked Vice President Kamala Harris as his running mate. He took to social media to thank Harris and said he couldn’t have asked for a better partner and friend than her.
“One year ago today, I made one of the most important decisions I’ve ever made: selecting my vice president. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner and friend on this journey. Thanks @VP for all you do,” Biden wrote on social media.
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Biden, a Democrat, had made history on August 11, 2020, by selecting the first Black woman to compete on a major American political party’s presidential ticket. At the time of her nomination, Harris was just the third woman in the history to be selected as the vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket. The 56-year-old is the only candidate to win the election, thus making her the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected US Vice President.
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Harris was born to two immigrant parents: a Black father and an Indian mother. Her father, Donald Harris, was from Jamaica, and her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a cancer researcher and civil rights activist from Chennai.
In the last few months, Joe Biden gave Harris the task to control a surge in United States’ southern border in June. As part of her effort, Harris travelled to Guatemala and Mexico and met the top leadership of both the countries.
While appointing Harris to lead the diplomatic efforts to slow the migrant surge at the US-Mexico border in March, Joe Biden had said, “I think the best thing to do is put someone who, when he or she speaks, they don’t have to wonder about, ‘Is that where the president is?’ When she speaks, she speaks for me, doesn’t have to check with me. She knows what she’s doing.”
