Category Archives: Kamala Harris

Biden and Harris release first public schedule as they begin transition – US election live

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Here are some details on the reaction to Biden’s win in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and other Pacific nations, from Ben Doherty, the Guardian’s Pacific editor:

Joe Biden’s presidential ascension had not even been settled when Fiji’s forthright prime minister was already urging greater US action on climate change from the incoming American leader.

Related: Pacific nations herald Biden presidency amid hope for action on climate emergency

There are a number of troubling statistics out today on the current state of Covid-19 in the US, the most urgent crisis Biden will inherit. Reuters has published an analysis of where things stand in the worsening pandemic in America, as the country nears 10m cases, becoming the first nation in the world to surpass that figure. Some specifics from the news agency’s report:

Related: Coronavirus live news: US nears 10m cases as global infections pass 50m

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The meaning of Kamala Harris: the woman who will break new ground as vice-president

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The former prosecutor and senator is the first woman to fill her upcoming White House role. What does her life so far tell us about how she will govern?

Kamala Harris has spent her life crashing through glass ceilings and accumulating “firsts”. She was the first female district attorney of San Francisco, the first female attorney general of California, the first Indian American in the US Senate, the first Indian American candidate of a major party to run for vice-president. Soon she will become the first female vice-president. If Joe Biden only serves one term, as expected, there is a chance that in 2024 she could become the first black female president.

The problem with phrases like “first black female president” is that they confine the California senator to the sort of boxes she has always tried to avoid. “When I first ran for office that was one of the things that I struggled with, which is that you are forced through that process to define yourself in a way that you fit neatly into the compartment that other people have created,” she told the Washington Post last year. “I am who I am … You might need to figure it out, but I’m fine with it.” She does not agonise over her identity – she simply calls herself a “proud American”.

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‘Spread the faith’: Biden and Harris victory speeches offer message of unity – video highlights

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Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have offered a message of unity as the pair spoke following their election victory. Harris, who will be the first woman to be vice-president, paid tribute to her mother. For Biden, his speech was an opportunity to offer an olive branch to his political rivals after nearly four years of division under Donald Trump

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‘We must restore the soul of America’: Joe Biden’s victory speech in full – video

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President-elect Joe Biden promised to 'restore the soul of America' as he declared victory in front of a crowd of supporters on Saturday night in his home town of Wilmington. 'I pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide but unify, who doesn't see red states or blue states but who only sees the United States.'

Addressing Trump supporters, Biden said he understood their disappointment because he had lost before. But now, 'let’s give each other a chance', he said. Biden and Kamala Harris hardly mentioned Donald Trump directly in their speeches – instead, they focused on the challenges ahead, including tackling the coronavirus pandemic

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‘You chose truth’: Kamala Harris’s historic victory speech in full – video

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Kamala Harris, the first Black woman and first South Asian American woman to become vice-president-elect, began her victory speech by quoting the late congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis, who said, 'Democracy is not a state, it is an act.'

A century after women won the right to vote, Harris, wearing suffragette white, spoke about her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris. 'When she came here from India, at the age of 19, she maybe didn’t quite imagine this moment. But she believed so deeply in an America where a moment like this is possible,' she said.

Joe Biden was declared the president-elect after the AP announced he had won Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes, putting him over the threshold of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House and beat Donald Trump

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Bernie Sanders offers congratulations to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris – video

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Bernie Sanders, the progressive senator of Vermont who put up a strong challenge to Joe Biden in the Democratic primaries before helping him campaign, has offered congratulations to the president-elect and his running mate, Kamala Harris. Sanders called this election the most important in modern American history

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US election live: Joe Biden wins and says ‘It’s time for America to unite’

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Georgia’s Secretary of State has tweeted that that county of Fulton had “discovered an issue involving reporting from their work” on Friday.

Brad Raffensperger said officials will rescan the “work”, which I assume he means ballots, although the tweet is fairly vague.

Fulton has discovered an issue involving reporting from their work on Fri. Officials are at State Farm Arena to rescan that work. I have a monitor & investigators onsite. Also sent Dep. SOS as well to oversee the process to make sure to secure the vote and protect all legal votes

The Guardian’s Libby Brooks reports from Glasgow:

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has congratulated President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris following the US Presidential election.

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Who will fill Kamala Harris’s Senate seat in California?

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The state’s governor will appoint a replacement for Harris now she has been elected vice-president. Who’s in the frame?

With Kamala Harris officially headed to the White House, a fresh political battle in her home state of California looms: who will fill her US Senate seat?

Related: US election live: Joe Biden wins and says 'It’s time for America to unite'

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Biden’s win marks the end of Trump’s war on democracy and truth

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Americans across the country took to the streets to celebrate the end of Trump’s presidency while triumph likely to be welcomed by international allies

Joe Biden has been elected the 46th US president, signalling a return to political norms in America after four years of raucous populism and administrative turmoil under Donald Trump.

Related: Ever resilient, Joe Biden finally grasps his chance to lead America

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‘We did it, Joe!’: Kamala Harris calls president-elect Biden to celebrate election victory – video

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Kamala Harris shared a video of her calling to congratulate Joe Biden after the US presidential election was called for the Democratic candidate. 'We did it Joe,' Harris says, while apparently out on a walk with her husband. 'You're going to be the next president of the United States.'

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Kamala Harris makes history as first woman of color elected US vice-president

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California senator, who is of Indian and Jamaican heritage, will be first elected woman in White House

Kamala Harris has become vice-president-elect of the US, the first time in history that a woman, and a woman of color, has been elected to such a position in the White House.

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US election 2020: Joe Biden holds lead over Donald Trump in tense wait for results – live

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The Guardian’s Nina Lakhani reports from Northampton county:

Allegany county, home to Pennsylvania’s second biggest city of Pittsburgh, has paused all counting until tomorrow morning due to a legal challenge over 29,000 ballots.

We are also getting some more numbers from Nevada’s rural counties, and Joe Biden’s lead has shrunk slightly to about 11,500 votes.

Lyon, too, not moving dial much.

Shows you disproportionate impact of Clark.

Lyon and Elko are two of larger rural counties.

Biden by 11.5K

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Joe Biden: ‘When the count is finished, we believe we will be the winner’ – video

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Joe Biden expressed confidence in his victory in the presidential election, he stressed he was not ‘declaring’ victory but said it was ‘clear’ he would hit the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

On the election results, Biden emphasised all votes should be counted and he characterised his potential win as non-partisan, calling once again for unity in the US

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Biden campaign says Trump supporters tried to force bus off highway

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  • President appears to praise threats from his own supporters
  • Biden campaign says bus was nearly forced off road

Trucks with Trump signs and flags surrounded a Biden campaign bus on a Texas highway on Friday and attempted to slow the vehicle down and run it off the road, the Biden campaign said on Saturday.

Several video clips posted on social media by both Biden and Trump supporters showed the trucks surrounding the bus. The trucks then tried to slow the bus down and run it off the road before staff called 911, according to the Biden campaign.

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Trump repeats claim ‘Covid, Covid, Covid’ dominates news to undermine his campaign – live

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Several polls of battleground states were just released, so the blog is going to sum them up.

First up is Georgia, where Biden has pulled slightly ahead of Trump, according to Monmouth University.

GEORGIA VOTER POLL: President - @JoeBiden overtakes @realDonaldTrump

Registered voters:
45% Trump (47% in Sept.)
50% Biden (46%)

Likely voters, high turnout:
46% Trump (48%)
50% Biden (46%)

Likely voters, low turnout:
48% Trump (50%)
50% Biden (45%) https://t.co/aUyYrRGfMt pic.twitter.com/pygB8gmNML

Trump predicted he would “over-perform” on election day, as polls show him trailing nationally and in key battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

At a press event in Las Vegas, Trump says: “On Tuesday, we’re going to over-perform” #Elections2020 pic.twitter.com/UGf7ZHRbuJ

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White House chief of staff says ‘we’re not going to control pandemic’, after Pence staffers test positive – live

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Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York state, is having a field day over the comments of the White House chief of staff Mark Meadows this morning. In a rare moment of transparency, Meadows admitted to a Sunday political talk show that the Trump administration had no intention of containing coronavirus, saying: “We’re not going to control the pandemic”.

Cuomo said that thinking was tantamount to giving in to the virus. “They surrendered without firing a shot. It was the great American surrender,” he said on Sunday, as reported by the Daily News.

After the Senate voted to move forward with the final vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, Mitch McConnell spoke on the Senate floor, celebrating the lasting influence of the vote for posterity.

“By tomorrow night, we’ll have a new member of the United States Supreme Court,” he told the chamber.

McConnell, just after the Senate votes to limit debate on Amy Coney Barrett: "A lot of what we’ve done over the last four years will be undone sooner or later by the next election. They won’t be able to do much about this for a long time to come."

Also, McConnell's right hand, which was deeply bruised earlier this week and prompted several Qs about his health, appears much better. Most of the bruising is gone https://t.co/WPFJcqsog2

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Trump v Biden at TV town halls: a president kept in check – latest reaction live

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Joe Biden said at a town hall event Thursday night that he would announce before election day whether he favors expanding the supreme court.

Biden has repeatedly declined to lay out a stance on the issue amid an ongoing Republican sprint to install a third justice nominated by Donald Trump before the election, in what critics have called a naked power grab.

Related: Biden says he'll lay out stance on expanding supreme court before election

In a new interactive elections timeline, Alvin Chang has explained how various 2020 US election scenarios, including the case of Trump losing but refusing to concede, could play out.

Americans are used to a certain routine with presidential elections – but this year might be different, Alvin writes. If you’re not current on such concepts as the safe harbor deadline and wonder how states select electors, read about it here:

Related: Timeline: how 2020 US election scenarios could play out

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Amy Coney Barrett refuses to tell Kamala Harris if she thinks climate change is happening – video

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Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris has continued to grill supreme court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on a range of issues, including climate change and racial discrimination in the US. Harris pressed Barrett on whether she believed coronavirus was infectious, smoking caused cancer and climate change was happening. Barrett avoided answering directly to a number of issues during the questioning, including one from Democratic senator Cory Booker on whether it was wrong to separate children from their parents to deter immigrants coming to the US

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Kamala Harris pushes Amy Coney Barrett on Trump’s plan to dismantle Obamacare – video

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Supreme court nominee Amy Coney Barrett was questioned by Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris over the Affordable Care Act, known popularly as Obamacare, during day two of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. Barrett made the claim that she was not aware of Donald Trump’s campaign promise to appoint justices who would dismantle Obamacare. Harris also tackled Barrett’s views on abortion, making a carefully laid-out case that despite Barrett’s equivocation and insistence that she is unbiased on the issue of reproductive rights, she is far from it. Republicans want to have Barrett confirmed before election day

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Trump says he won’t participate in virtual presidential debate with Biden – live

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It took maybe an hour for people close to Trump, as well as his opponents, to speculate that the president’s decision not to participate in the next presidential debate could change.

Trump economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, said in an interview with Fox News that Trump’s position could be a “negotiation point,” and that he would like to see the president participate.

In a wide ranging interview with Fox Business, Donald Trump provided an update on his coronavirus infection.

The president confirmed he is still taking the strong steroid dexamethasone. It’s widely available in hospitals and doctors have highlighted it can make the patient feel better than they actually are, which could help explain some of the president’s unusually upbeat descriptions of how he is feeling over the past several days.

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