After running nearly two weeks past the deadline he set for himself to announce his VP, Joe Biden announced today that Senator Kamala Harris would be his running mate.
Biden had made it clear that a woman would be his running mate, and other potential picks included YouTube expert Susan Rice, Â Gretchen Whitmer, Tammy Duckworth, and Karen Bass. So in other words, as terrible a pick as Kamala is, it actually could’ve somehow been worse.
Harris does seem like an odd choice, especially considering the tense exchange she had with Biden on the debate stage over busing where she implied that he was a racist. And while she merely implied Biden was a racist, she was more definitive when it came to women accusing him of sexual misconduct.
As The Hill reported on April 2019:
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that she believes women who say they felt uncomfortable after receiving unwanted touching from former Vice President Joe Biden.
“I believe them and I respect them being able to tell their story and having the courage to do it,” Harris said at a presidential campaign event in Nevada.
The California senator added that Biden will need to decide for himself whether to run for president.
“He’s going to have to make that decision for himself. I wouldn’t tell him what to do,” Harris said.
Harris will unquestionably walk back on her prior comments implying that Biden is racist (which she was smart enough to hedge at the time, saying that she didn’t believe Biden himself was racist before using charged language to imply as much), but how will she explain away why she no longer believes Biden’s accusers? And if she still does, why did she accept the offer to be his running mate?
Those are good questions – which is why you can’t expect a journalist to ask her them anytime soon.
