Sen. Kamala Harris dodged a question about the onslaught of Republican attacks leveled at her since former Vice President Joe Biden named her as his running mate.
“I am signing this because I am in this race to win,” the California Democrat told reporters.
“And with that guy right there,” she added, referring to the presumptive 2020 Democratic White House nominee. “We’re going to get it done.”
President Trump and Republicans have lambasted Harris since Biden unveiled her as his No. 2.
Shortly after the announcement, Trump called her “nasty” for her tough questioning of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation process and for the way she confronted Biden in one of their debates over his opposition to federally mandated school busing to achieve racial balance in the 1970s. Trump then reiterated his White House press briefing comments in an interview with Fox Business, describing her as “a mad woman” and “so angry.”
Trump has also elevated claims that Harris does not meet the definition of a natural-born citizen and therefore is not eligible to be vice president, despite her being born in the United States.
“I just heard about it; I’ll take a look,” he said.
Republicans have seized on her prosecutorial record as well. Though she faced similar criticism during the primary, the GOP has struggled to differentiate complaints that “Kamala is a cop,” which is based on her tenures as an Alameda County line prosecutor, San Francisco’s district attorney, and California’s attorney general, with its “law and order” message.
Harris joined Biden on Friday at the DuPont Hotel in Wilmington, Delaware, to sign papers so the pair can accept the party’s presidential and vice presidential nods during next week’s convention and be listed on ballots across the country. They took only one question from reporters the campaign invited to the event.
The ticket is due to give acceptance speeches at Wilmington’s Chase Center. Harris’s address is set for Wednesday, while Biden’s will cap the four-day affair on Thursday.
