Washington: Former US president Barack Obama and ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday praised President Joe Biden for deciding to step aside from the presidential race but stopped short of endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s nominee for the November 5 general elections. This fuelled speculation about whether Obama wants to endorse his wife for the upcoming elections.
Biden (81) announced that he was withdrawing from the race to be the next president, following mounting pressure from Democrats after a faltering debate performance against Republican candidate Trump last month. He has endorsed 59-year-old Harris to be the new Democratic nominee. Though Biden’s endorsement almost seals Harris’ position as the presidential nominee of her party, she still needs to get elected by the party’s delegates during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month. Biden has 3,896 delegates in his kitty, as against 1,976 required to win the nomination.
Harris immediately secured the endorsement of former president Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be the nominee, thus making it a bit easier for her to win the delegate battle during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago beginning August 19.
Dikran Rybczynski