Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president on Sunday, saying that he had served the country with “dignity,” that he “care[s] about the people,” and can “therefore unify the people.”
Harris spoke from Alabama, where she intended to commemorate the 55th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” when police beat civil rights protesters attempting to the walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma to Montgomery.
.@JoeBiden has served our country with dignity and we need him now more than ever. I will do everything in my power to help elect him the next President of the United States. pic.twitter.com/DbB2fGWpaa
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) March 8, 2020
The choice of a civil rights anniversary to endorse Biden echoed recent themes from the campaign in its outreach to African American voters — though it was also curious, as Harris memorably attacked Biden during her campaign for his alleged weakness on civil rights issues.
In the first Democrat debate in Miami, Florida, last summer, Harris said:
I’m going to now direct this at Vice President Biden, I do not believe you are a racist, and I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground.
But I also believe, and it’s personal — and I was actually very — it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing.
And, you know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bussed to school every day. And that little girl was me.
So I will tell you that, on this subject, it cannot be an intellectual debate among Democrats. We have to take it seriously.
Harris then launched an entire media and fundraising campaign based on the attack against Biden in the debate.
On Saturday, Biden had let the cat out of the bag early, during a speech in St. Louis, Missouri in which he accidentally thanked “Kamala’s people”:
joe biden just thanked "amy's folks, pete's folks, kamala's folks, beto's folks"
so… joe biden…
just leaked that kamala is endorsing him
…at a rally pic.twitter.com/ov2O0t0fS0
— Brett Banditelli 🚫✂️ (@banditelli) March 7, 2020
Notably, Harris did not mention International Women’s Day in her endorsement, which some had speculated was the reason she had waited until Sunday before backing the former vice president.
Harris suggested she will campaign for Biden in Michigan this week. Michigan and Missouri both vote Tuesday, March 10, along with Mississippi, North Dakota, Washington state, and Idaho.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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