Newsman: Former President Barack Obama officially endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday to be the Democratic Party’s 2024 nominee for the Presidential race.
“This week, we got a chance to catch up with a friend who we’ve known for more than 20 years. She’d had a pretty busy couple of days, to say the least. But we couldn’t be more excited for her — or more thrilled to endorse Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for President of the United States,” read a joint statement released by Obama and Michelle Obama.
“We agree with President Biden — choosing Kamala was one of the best decisions he’s made,” they said.
In the statement, he praised Harris’ background as a prosecutor, her time in the Senate and her lead on reproductive rights and other issues as vice president.
“But Kamala has more than a resume,” the statement read. “She has the vision, the character, and the strength that this critical moment demands. There is no doubt in our mind that Kamala Harris has exactly what it takes to win this election and deliver for the American people. At a time when the stakes have never been higher, she gives us all reason to hope.”
Several days before Obama’s endorsement, Democratic leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, publicly endorsed Harris. Jeffries and Schumer both spoke about Harris earning the nomination “from the grassroots up and not the top down.”
Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also endorsed Harris in a joint statement Sunday.
In 2010, Obama endorsed Harris for attorney general, an office she won and held for six years. And in 2016, he endorsed when she ran for the Senate.
Obama also nominated Harris’ brother-in-law, Tony West — another prolific Obama supporter — to be the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division in 2009. He went on to become an associate attorney general at the Justice Department in the Obama administration.
