Top Democratic leaders in Congress have praised Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race, but have stopped short of giving explicit support to Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s candidate for the November presidential election.
Neither Senate Democratic Speaker Chuck Schumer, nor House Democratic Speaker Hakeem Jeffries, nor former House Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosihave mentioned Harris in their reactions.
Meanwhile, former President Barack Obama He highlighted Joe Biden’s career after he dropped out of the presidential race, but avoided endorsing Kamala Harris as a candidate, while calling on the Democratic Party to “create a process” to elect “an outstanding candidate.”
“We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead, but I have extraordinary confidence that our party’s leaders will be able to create a process that will produce an exceptional candidate” for the November elections, Obama said in a statement published on his Medium page.
He added: “Joe knows better than anyone what is at stake in this election. How everything he has fought for throughout his life and everything the Democratic Party stands for is in jeopardy if we allow Donald Trump back into the White House,” warned Obama, considered the party’s main “heavyweight.”
The Clintons support Harris
Former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on Sunday applauded Biden’s decision to drop out of the re-election race and declared their full support for the president’s proposal to nominate Kamala Harris as his choice to defeat former President Trump in the November White House election.
“President Biden capped an extraordinary career with a presidency that has lifted the country out of an unprecedented pandemic, created millions of jobs and rebuilt a shattered economy,” the Clintons said in a joint statement.
Harris aspires to be the candidate
The vice president of the Biden administration said on Sunday that she hopes to “win the nomination” of the Democratic Party for the presidential elections in November, to “defeat Donald Trump,” she said after Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the race.
Harris praised the “selfless and patriotic act” of the 81-year-old Democratic president, who endorsed her as a candidate. “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party – and unite our nation – to defeat Donald Trump,” she wrote in a statement.
Praise and applause for an exit
“Joe Biden has not only been a great president and a great parliamentary leader, but he has also been a truly incredible human being,” said Senate President Chuck Schumer. “His decision was obviously not easy, but he has once again put his country, his party, and our future first. Joe, today shows that you are a true patriot and a great American,” he added, despite the pressures that have been put on the president.
Pelosi also stressed that Biden is a “patriotic American who has always put our country first.” “His legacy, his vision, his values and his leadership make him one of the most consistent presidents in American history,” she said.
Meanwhile, several Democratic voices have already called for an “open” process to select the party’s candidate. Congressmen Scott Wong, Julie Tsirkin, Peter Welch, Jon Tester and Joe Manchin have advocated this position.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also defended the “open” process and recalled that it was Biden’s “progressive deterioration” that pushed him into the presidential race.
Top Democratic leaders in Congress have praised Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race, but have stopped short of giving explicit support to Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s candidate for the November presidential election.
A new beginning
Now the clock is ticking again towards a crucial new date for the Democratic Party: the National Convention, which begins on August 19 in Chicago (Illinois), the place where the final nominee of the political party should appear – with Harris already leading all predictions – and even the name of who will accompany him as a candidate for the vice presidency.
Given the rules, this is a far from ideal scenario, as Biden has won all the primary elections in recent months without a rival and the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, one of the most powerful officials in the party, has not ruled out appealing the possibility that the Democrats directly nominate a new candidate who has not collected the necessary number of delegates at the polls to ratify his name.
However, political experts in the American media agree that, given Trump’s enormous interest in keeping Biden in the race, the emergence of a new candidate threatens to change the script again at a time when the tycoon is going through his best moment in the polls since the beginning of the electoral race.
Source: With information from AFP
