Sen. Kamala Harris warned of foreign meddling in her and Joe Biden’s coming clash with President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
The California Democrat mentioned the threat during her first appearance at a “grassroots” fundraiser since being named Biden’s running mate when asked about the ticket’s plan to combat voter suppression ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.
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“We also need to not fall for what is going to be, again, foreign interference in our election through misinformation campaigns like they did in 2016,” the presumptive 2020 Democratic vice presidential nominee said. “It’s happening. It will happen in 2020. The intelligence community has said that openly. Let’s not fall for the ‘okey-doke.'”
Biden, the two-term vice president and apparent 2020 standard-bearer, twice on Wednesday touted Harris’s experience as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, once during their maiden address as a team at Alexis I. duPont High School in Wilmington, Delaware, on Wednesday and another earlier in the fundraiser.
“She’s on the Intelligence Committee and is even more up to date [than] I am because she gets briefed,” he said. “Until three weeks ago, I didn’t get briefed every day. I get briefed every day again because I’m the de facto nominee.”
Biden started the fundraiser thanking donors for their support. He announced that he and Harris, the six-year California attorney general and seven-year San Francisco district attorney, raised $26 million in the 24 hours since they rolled her out as his understudy. More than 150,000 people were first-time contributors.
The pair, wearing coordinated blue and white outfits, sat socially distanced from one another for the broadcast, aired from the Hotel Du Pont. The event itself, watched by 40,000 live viewers, brought in $9.6 million from more than 200,000 donors.
One of the three questions posed during the 30-minute affair was from a voter curious about what gave the duo hope “in hard times.”
“What gives me hope is, you know, being asked to join the ticket,” Harris said, laughing. “But also knowing that when I look at the folks who are marching in the streets, the mothers, the fathers, the students, people who seemingly have nothing in common, but now, they have everything in common, and they are fighting in a fight that is borne out of love of country and belief about what we are and can be.”
