(DailyAnswer.org) – President Joe Biden promptly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee 30 minutes after he announced his decision to step down from his reelection campaign on July 21. The president’s decision to endorse Harris indicates his intention to unite the party as it approaches the Democratic National Convention.
Harris’ chances of winning in November are unclear; she currently holds a nationwide approval rating of 36% according to one poll. A survey conducted in June suggested that in some states, such as Texas, Harris is actually less popular than Biden. Harris’ own performance in polls serves as a harsh reminder that it was not only Biden’s age and mental fitness that concerned increasingly disillusioned voters, but major policy issues.
According to a January 2024 poll, 70% of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of the border crisis. The Biden administration’s economic policies also concern increasingly disillusioned voters, including key voter bases such as Black Americans. Many from black communities reportedly feel let down by Biden’s government and argue it has not delivered on its promises.
Following Biden’s endorsement of Harris, Independent candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr blasted the vice president over her links to the state’s incarceration of nonviolent offenders, which he called the worst human rights record of any public official. He also accused her of being a “war hawk” regarding both China and Ukraine. Kennedy took issue with Harris’ decision to not release 5,000 prisoners convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. He argued that the reliance on prisoners for public works services was just a modern form of slavery that did not align with traditional Democratic values.
Though concerns persist about Harris’ own approval ratings and the Biden administration’s policies, a poll taken after Biden’s decision to step down found that Harris had a slight lead over former President Donald Trump among those surveyed. In his endorsement of the current vice president, Biden said choosing Harris as his running mate four years ago was the best decision he made. He encouraged Democrats to rally together to defeat Trump, and expressed his full support for the vice president.
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