19.25: According to Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison, US Vice President Kamala Harris has collected enough delegate votes to run as the party’s candidate for the upcoming presidential election. Read more here.
“I will formally accept your nomination next week once the virtual voting is complete, but I’m happy to know we have enough delegates to secure the nomination,” Harris said on a call with supporters organized by her campaign, NBC News reports. Harrison is said to have made the announcement on this call, it continues.
The result of the delegate vote will not be officially announced until early next week, and the Democratic Party Convention will then elect her as candidate in mid-August.
19:14: David Plouffe, former campaign manager for former President Barack Obama in 2008, has joined the Harris campaign as a senior adviser, according to Politico. Plouffe became a senior adviser to the former president after Obama’s election victory, and was also involved in Obama’s campaign in 2012.
According to media reports, Plouffe played a role in convincing Biden not to run for president in 2016 and instead to support Hillary Clinton, who lost to Donald Trump.
10.01 am: Former President Donald Trump has defended his successor Joe Biden against accusations that he is too old. “Biden is not old. You know, 81 is not old,” Trump told his supporters at a campaign rally in the state of Pennsylvania. The former president had previously attacked Biden several times during the election campaign because of his age. But according to Trump, Biden’s problem is not his age, but his incompetence and mental weakness. He knows 95-year-olds who are in top shape, Trump continued. Joe Biden is simply a “bad 81-year-old” who would destroy the country.
The fact that 78-year-old Trump no longer directly attacks Biden’s age could have something to do with the fact that Trump is the oldest presidential candidate in US history after Biden’s withdrawal. There have also been voices calling for Trump to resign because of his age. Read more about this here.
