US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Howard College in Washington, DC, on November 6, 2024. Donald Trump received a sweeping victory Wednesday within the US presidential election, defeating Kamala Harris to finish an astonishing political comeback that despatched shock waves world wide. (Picture by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
| Picture Credit score: SAUL LOEB
Kamala Harris stated Wednesday that “we should settle for the outcomes of this election” as she inspired supporters to proceed combating for his or her imaginative and prescient of the nation after her loss to Donald Trump.
The Democratic vice chairman stated the battle would proceed “within the voting sales space, within the courts and within the public sq..”
“Generally the struggle takes some time,” she stated. “That doesn’t imply we received’t win.”
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Harris delivered her remarks at Howard College, her alma mater and one of many nation’s most distinguished traditionally Black faculties, in the identical spot the place she hoped to offer a victory speech.
“Whereas I concede this election, I don’t concede the struggle that fueled this marketing campaign,” Harris stated.
Her working mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, was within the viewers. So had been Reps. Nancy Pelosi, the previous Home speaker, and Barbara Lee, each from Harris’ house state of California.
Earlier than her speech, Harris referred to as Trump to concede the election and congratulate him on his victory. She stated, “We’ll interact in a peaceable switch of energy.”
Harris, as soon as seen as a possible savior for the Democratic Occasion after Joe Biden ‘s reelection marketing campaign stalled, is reckoning with a profound rejection by American voters on this 12 months’s presidential election.
She trailed in each battleground state to Trump, a person she described as an existential hazard to the nation’s foundational establishments. And Trump appeared on monitor to win the favored vote for the primary time in his three campaigns for the White Home — even after two impeachments, felony convictions and his try to overturn his earlier election loss.
Biden plans to deal with the election outcomes on Thursday. The White Home stated he spoke with Harris and Trump on Wednesday, and he invited the president-elect to fulfill with him quickly.
David Plouffe, a prime Harris adviser, stated marketing campaign staffers “left all of it on the sector for his or her nation.”
“We dug out of a deep gap however not sufficient,” he stated. “A devastating loss.”
In a bitter footnote for Harris, because the sitting vice chairman she is anticipated to supervise Congress’ ceremonial certification of the election.
It is the identical function Mike Pence performed 4 years in the past, when Trump directed his supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol. Though critics stated the violent rebel crystallized Trump’s risk to American democracy, that in the end didn’t dissuade voters from electing him once more.
Harris grew to become the Democratic candidate after Biden, who was already struggling to persuade voters that he might function president till he was 86 years previous, stumbled badly in his June 27 debate with Trump.
He dropped out of the race on July 21 and endorsed his vice chairman, who swiftly unified the Democratic Occasion round her candidacy.
It was a exceptional coincidence for Harris. 4 years earlier, her personal presidential marketing campaign had flamed out and revealed the political limitations of somebody as soon as dubbed “the feminine Barack Obama.” Although Biden selected Harris as his working mate, she languished within the function after taking workplace as the primary lady, Black individual or individual of South Asian descent to function vice chairman.
Some Democrats began writing her off after they contemplated the get together’s future after Biden. However Harris discovered recent function after the U.S. Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, and she or he grew to become the White Home’s main advocate for abortion rights.
Harris additionally made a extra concerted effort to community with native politicians, enterprise leaders and cultural figures, forging connections that might serve her down the street. The second arrived earlier than she anticipated, and she or he was catapulted into the presidential race with Biden’s departure solely a month earlier than the Democratic Nationwide Conference.
Harris immediately reset the phrases of the competition with Trump. She was 18 years youthful and a former courtroom prosecutor going up towards the primary main presidential candidate convicted of crimes. Her candidacy energized Democrats who feared they had been destined for defeat with Biden on the prime of the ticket.
However she additionally confronted steep odds from the start. She inherited Biden’s political operation with simply 107 days till the top of the election, and she or he confronted a stressed citizens that was anticipating change.
Though Harris pitched “a brand new approach ahead,” she struggled to meaningfully differentiate herself from the unpopular sitting president. As well as, she had restricted time to introduce herself to skeptical voters, who by no means solid a poll for her in a presidential major.
Democrats now face the prospect of choosing up the items throughout a second Trump presidency, and it is unclear what function Harris will play in her get together’s future.
“The work of defending America from the impacts of a Trump Presidency begins now,” wrote Jen O’Malley Dillon, Harris’ marketing campaign chair, in a letter to workers. “I do know the Vice President isn’t completed on this struggle, and I do know the very folks on this electronic mail are additionally going to be leaders on this collective mission.”
Printed – November 07, 2024 04:37 am IST
