Kamala Harris looks to tap into Joe Biden’s union support as she rallies with him in Pennsylvania for Labor Day

Biden harris ap
Kamala Harris hopes Joe Biden's status as a Pennsylvania native endears here to the critical swing state voters.

Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden are co-headlining a campaign event Monday in the marquee battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Harris is balancing presenting herself as “a new way forward” while remaining intensely loyal to Biden and the policies he has pushed.

The pair will attend Pittsburgh’s Labor Day parade and offer some remarks. This is the first time they have shared a speaking slot on the political stage since the surprising election shake-up that provided a fresh jolt of Democratic enthusiasm for the 2024 Election.

Harris’ campaign has said Pennsylvania voters are newly energized since Harris moved to the top of the ticket six weeks ago, with tens of thousands of new volunteers signed up to canvass for her and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee. Harris and Biden’s appearance at the parade, one of the largest such gatherings in the country, is part of a battleground state blitz that will last for just over two months until Election Day. Harris heads to Detroit on Monday for a campaign event before meeting Biden in Pennsylvania.

Harris, 59, has sought to appeal to voters by positioning herself as a break from poisonous politics, rejecting the acerbic rhetoric of her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, and looking to move beyond the Biden era. Yet while her delivery may be very different from Biden’s, Harris’ agenda is chock-full of the same issues he has championed: capping the cost of prescription drugs, the Affordable Care Act, the economy, and helping families afford child care.

“We fight for a future where we build what I call an opportunity economy so that every American has the opportunity to own a home, start a business, and build wealth and intergenerational wealth. And a future where we lower the cost of living for America,” she said at a recent rally, echoing Biden’s calls to grow the economy “from the bottom out and the middle up.”

Harris briefly appeared on stage with Biden after the president delivered his remarks on the opening night of last month’s Democratic National Convention, but the two haven’t shared a microphone at a political event since Biden himself was running for office. At that time, the campaign was using Harris mostly as its chief spokeswoman for abortion rights, an issue they believe can help them win in November as restrictions grow and health care worsens for women following the fall of Roe v. Wade.

The pair have appeared at official events and met together at the White House since the ticket swap.

For more than 3 1/2 years, Harris has been one of Biden’s chief validators. Now the tables are turned, as Harris looks to lean on Biden — a native of Scranton, Pennsylvania — to help win the potentially decisive state. For his part, Biden has laid low since ending his re-election bid. He was last at the White House on Aug. 19 and has since been vacationing in Southern California and Delaware.

But even as she’s taken on the mantle of leading the Democratic Party, Harris has stood steadfastly at Biden’s side. In her first sit-down interview of her candidacy, Harris delivered an impassioned defense of Biden’s record and ability to do the job, even despite the events of the past two months that ended with her running for the Oval Office and Biden a lame duck.

The 81-year-old president stepped aside in July following a disastrous debate performance with Trump and a growing chorus within his own party that he should make room for a new generation. Harris and Trump will debate on Sept. 10.

“He cares so deeply about the American people. He is so smart and — and loyal to the American people. And I have spent hours upon hours with him, be it in the Oval Office or the Situation Room. He has the intelligence, the commitment, and the judgment and disposition that I think the American people rightly deserve in their president,” she said in last week’s interview.

She added of Trump: “By contrast, the former president has none of that.”

Harris said during the CNN interview that serving with Biden was “one of the greatest honors of my career,” and she recounted the moment he called to tell her he was stepping down.

“He told me what he had decided to do and … I asked him, ‘Are you sure?’ and he said, ‘Yes,’ and that’s how I learned about it.”

The vice president said she didn’t need to ask Biden for his support because “he was very clear that he was going to endorse me.”

Harris has also defended the administration’s record on the southern border and immigration, one of the administration’s most persistent and vexing problems. She notes that she was tasked with trying to address the “root causes” in other countries that were driving the border crossings, though Republicans have tagged her as the “border czar.”

“We have laws that have to be followed and enforced, that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally, and there should be consequences,” Harris said.

Although Harris has appeared more forceful in speaking about the plight of civilians in Gaza, as Israel’s war against Hamas there nears the 11-month mark, the vice president has also endorsed Biden’s efforts to arm Israel and bring about a hostage deal and cease-fire.

Israel said early Sunday that it had recovered the bodies of six hostages captured during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that ignited the Gaza war, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin. The revelation prompted tens of thousands of Israelis to demonstrate in the streets demanding a cease-fire deal.

Harris will join Biden on Monday in the Situation Room to meet with the U.S. hostage deal negotiating team to discuss their continuing efforts on a deal that would secure the release of the remaining hostages.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

Associated Press


16 comments

  • Yrral

    September 2, 2024 at 11:15 am

    Maybe Trump can get his former mob boss to gather support,Trump was involved with the 5 family Mafia,while building his building,he was involved in a mob construction contract ,in which some undocumented Polish were hurt Google Trump Polish Construction Workers Mob Google The Five Family Mafia Construction Trial Trump Google Dan Sullivan Trump Mob

    • Ocean Joe

      September 2, 2024 at 6:49 pm

      I think the mob controlled the concrete business, so Trump may have had no alternative. If they partnered…a mutual admiration society.

  • ELVIS PITTS AMERICAN

    September 2, 2024 at 12:52 pm

    Thats right Dook 4 Brains spend down your money for kickbacks as The Sage Donald Trump is gonna win by a landslide,
    ELVIS PITTS AMERICAN

    • Yrral

      September 2, 2024 at 1:30 pm

      You are having one Trump wet moist wettest dream

  • Yrral

    September 2, 2024 at 1:31 pm

    Rubio implicates Trump with Mob Google Rubio Trump Polish Mob Construction Workers

    • Day 38

      September 2, 2024 at 2:13 pm

      Google, what is the language of Ukraine? Then ask google if Hunter Biden speaks and writes it? Then google how the hell did he get a job on the BOD of Burisma. Then finally ask how the rest of the Biden family became millionaires?

      • Ocean Joe

        September 2, 2024 at 6:45 pm

        And then google if Jared Kushner speaks Arabic and how the Saudis invested billions in his brand new investment fund allowing him to keep up to $2 billion for himself WHILE HE WAS SERVING AS AN OFFICIAL IN THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION.
        Then google Hunter’s Laptop and REMEMBER BENGAZI! so Day 38 wont feel left out.

      • rick whitaker

        September 2, 2024 at 10:51 pm

        PEACHY, a million ain’t that much any more, did you not know that.

        • Foghorn Leghorn

          September 4, 2024 at 8:59 am

          You really are an idiot slum lord.

  • Elvis

    September 2, 2024 at 5:39 pm

    Good evening Dooks,
    What A Lame @55 attempt at a relevant piece of “NEWS”.
    YOU “DOOKS” suck Now, YOU “Dooks” will always & Forever Suck in The Future.
    Be ashamed all Dook 4 Brains Leftys…..as You Suck…and not in the goid “Orgazmatic” deffinition of Sucking The Sage Seed of A Manly “Bull Of The Woods” Sage Johnson Sucking”
    Thanks Dooks and Relax Your Sphincters ….

    • rick whitaker

      September 3, 2024 at 7:49 pm

      EARL / ELVIS the sphincterman has farted.

  • ElvisPittsAmerican

    September 2, 2024 at 5:42 pm

    America,
    This guy elvis makes a lot of sage sense.

  • Day 38

    September 2, 2024 at 9:05 pm

    I’m going to change my sign in to Foghorn Leghorn after listening to excerpts from Kammy’s rally today in Motown. She is goofy as hell and dumb too.

    • rick whitaker

      September 3, 2024 at 7:52 pm

      PEACHY THE EASY MARK , maga mark is quite descriptive of you, so peachy, that’s your new name. i’ll still know it’s you peachy.

  • Michael K

    September 2, 2024 at 11:24 pm

    Russian Asset would be more descriptive for Miss Spoke.

  • A Day without MAGA

    September 3, 2024 at 5:57 am

    You know lots of White MAGA have lost their mind , when they support Black MAGA politicians that are even crazier than they are ,like in North Carolina and Minnesota,it either an act of desperation ,wonder why your White relatives think you have went off the deep end Google Black MAGA Mark Robinson Google Black MAGA Royce White Minnesota Senate

Comments are closed.


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