Vice President Kamala Harris said she was sitting down to eat a breakfast of bacon and pancakes with her nieces when President Biden called to tell her that he was dropping out of the presidential race.
“And the phone rang and it was Joe Biden and he told me what he had decided to do and I asked him, ‘are you sure?’ And he said, ‘yes,’ and that’s how I learned about it,” Ms. Harris said in a CNN interview that aired Thursday evening.
She didn’t say if she asked for Mr. Biden’s endorsement because it was “very clear that he was going to support me.”
“My first thought was about him, to be honest,” she said.
Mr. Biden ended his bid for a second term in July after a disastrous debate performance that raised questions about his cognitive abilities.
In the aftermath of the debate, Ms. Harris said she doesn’t regret defending Mr. Biden’s mental vigor and ability to serve another four years.
“He has the intelligence, the commitment and the judgment and disposition that I think the American people rightly deserve in their president,” she said. “By contrast, the former president has none of that.”
She added that she is “so proud” to have served as Mr. Biden’s vice president.
“I think history is going to show a number of things about Joe Biden’s presidency. I think history is going to show that in so many ways it was transformative,” she said, ticking off a list of legislative accomplishments ranging from the infrastructure law to bolstering NATO.
“The character of the man is one that he has been in his life and career, including as president, quite selfless and puts the American people first,” Ms. Harris said of her boss.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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