Supported By Joe Biden To Run For US Presidential Election, Kamala Harris: I Will Do Everything To Beat Donald Trump

President Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris. (Twitter/@Kamalaharris)

JAKARTA - Incumbent Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris expressed her readiness to run in the 2024 United States presidential election and defeat Republican candidate Donald Trump, after President Joe Biden announced his resignation from the political contestation to be held next November and supported his candidacy.

"I am honored to have the support of the President and my intention is to get and win this nomination," he tweeted on social media, as quoted July 22.

"I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party - and unite our nation - to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme 2025 Project agenda," continued Vice President Harris.

As previously reported, President Biden on Sunday decided to resign as a presidential candidate for the 2024 Presidential Election, encouraging Vice President Harris to run as a candidate for the Democratic Party.

President Biden chose to focus on completing his term of office until his term ends on January 20, 2025. This week, he is planned to deliver his speech to the people of the United States.

"Although I intend to run for re-election, I believe that in the best interests of my party and country, I must resign and only focus on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term of office," President Biden wrote on X. July 22.

The president changed his mind at the last minute, said a source familiar with the matter. The president told his allies that Saturday evening he plans to stay in competition before changing his mind on Sunday afternoon.

On behalf of the American people, I thank Joe Biden for his extraordinary leadership as President of the United States and for his decades of service to our country.I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination.

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 21, 2024

On behalf of the American people, I thank Joe Biden for his extraordinary leadership as President of the United States and for his decades of service to our country. I am honored to have the President's endorsement and my attention is to earn and win this nominal.

"At around 1:45 pm today: the president told his senior team he had changed his mind," the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

President Biden announced his decision on social media minutes later.

The move dramatically changed competition at the White House which had been shaken repeatedly over the past month.

If Harris appears as a candidate, the move would be an unprecedented gamble by the Democratic Party: the first black and Asian-American woman to run for the White House in a country to have voted for a black president and has never voted for a female president for more than two centuries.

If officially nominated, Harris (59) will be the first black woman to lead a major party ticket in US history. Former California attorney general and former US senator he ran for president but did not succeed against Biden in 2020.

It's unclear whether other senior Democratic Party members will challenge Harris for a nomination - he is widely seen as the choice of many party officials - or whether the party itself will choose to open up opportunities for nominations.

The poll showed that Harris did not perform better statistically than Biden against Trump.

In a hypothetical direct battle, Harris and Trump drew with 44 percent support each in a July 15-16 Reuters/Ipsos poll that took place immediately after the assassination attempt against Trump on July 13.

Trump outperforms Biden 43 percent compared to 41 percent in the same poll, although the difference of 2 percentage points is meaningless given the margin of opinion poll error of 3 points.