The Daily 202: Choosing Harris shows Biden’s willingness to forgive, desire to be forgiven — and his late son’s influence

The former vice president noted on Tuesday that his late son had “enormous respect” for Harris and her work as California attorney general when he held the same job in Delaware. “I thought a lot about that as I made this decision,” Biden said in a statement. “There is no one’s opinion I valued more than Beau’s.”

But the 77-year-old has also earned a reputation in the 48 years since he was first elected to the U.S. Senate as the kind of dealmaking politician willing to let bygones be bygones. Biden has evolved along with the Democratic Party he now leads. Just as he has forgiven Harris for her hits last year, the presumptive presidential nominee is implicitly asking a younger generation of activists to forgive him for his past positions on hot-button issues like abortion and criminal justice, as well as a string of racially insensitive gaffes.

There is a long history in American politics of nominees turning to vanquished primary opponents in pursuit of party unity. Ronald Reagan chose George H.W. Bush after they ran against each other in 1980. Bush had attacked Reagan for adhering to “voodoo economics,” a reference to his embrace of supply-side, or trickle-down, theories. More recently, Barack Obama tapped Biden to be his running mate and Hillary Clinton to be secretary of state after their hard-fought 2008 nominating contest. The year before, Biden had backhandedly referred to Obama as “the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy” before criticizing him for not being specific about his plans. 

Obama was inspired to take this approach by reading “Team of Rivals,” a 2005 book from Harvard historian Doris Kearns Goodwin about how Abraham Lincoln put three of his opponents for the 1860 Republican nomination into the Cabinet during the Civil War: William Seward became secretary of state, Salmon Chase became treasury secretary, and Edward Bates became attorney general.

“As one Democrat put it, by picking Harris, Biden demonstrated that he will do what he thinks he must do to win the election. That Biden was able to put aside that debate moment and look to the larger goal of winning in November says something about both his character and his ambition,” Dan Balz notes. “Harris also had her detractors, who said, variously, that she had run an ineffective campaign, that she was thin on policy, that she might not be a true governing partner. Some liberals did not like her record as San Francisco district attorney or as California attorney general. … There were Democrats who said the debate dust-up should make Biden especially wary.”

Biden’s selection of a Black woman to round out the ticket can also be understood as the culmination of a 29-year effort to redeem himself and make amends for the mistreatment of Anita Hill when she came forward to accuse Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. As chairman of the all-male Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden refused to call witnesses who supported the Black law professor’s testimony and made other concessions to Republicans that helped clear the way for Thomas’s confirmation. “Hill did not get treated well,” Biden said last year. “I take responsibility for that.”

After what is remembered as the “Year of the Woman” in the 1992 election, Biden flew to Chicago to recruit Carol Moseley Braun, the first Black female senator in U.S. history, to join the Judiciary Committee. Now he has placed the second Black woman ever elected to the Senate, just 55 years old, at the forefront of the Democratic Party.

At a news conference after Biden made his announcement, President Trump criticized Harris for what he called her “nasty” questioning of Brett Kavanaugh, then a nominee to the Supreme Court, after he was accused of sexual assault during his 2018 confirmation hearing. “I thought she was the meanest, the most horrible, most disrespectful of anybody in the U.S. Senate,” Trump said. “She was nasty to a level that was just a horrible thing, the way she was. I won’t forget that soon.”

Many liberals and women’s groups will not forget that soon, either. That hearing, in which Kavanaugh denied wrongdoing, exponentially expanded Harris’s national profile and popularity among Democrats, laying the groundwork for the launch of her presidential campaign a few months later.

Trump added that he was surprised Biden picked Harris because he felt she was also “nasty” and “disrespectful” to his opponent. The president famously holds grudges against scores of people who have criticized him over the years, whether television personality Rosie O’Donnell or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). While Trump gave former rivals Ben Carson and Rick Perry seats in his Cabinet, it is very hard to imagine that he would have picked someone who attacked him the way Harris went after Biden as a running mate. 

Contrary to the Trump campaign’s claims, Harris did not describe Biden as a racist at the Democratic debate in June 2019. She attacked him for bragging earlier that month that he had been able to work well with segregationist senators to advance areas of common ground. “You also worked with them to oppose busing,” Harris said during the debate. “You know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. … And that little girl was me.” Biden called it a “mischaracterization” of his position on busing and said he “did not praise racists.”

Long before Trump arrived in Washington, Biden has been known to hold fewer grudges than many of his political contemporaries. Maureen Dowd wrote a column last month defending Biden after Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway attacked him for plagiarizing from British Labour leader Neil Kinnock during his first bid for president, a story that Dowd broke in 1987. 

“Biden, as he did on other occasions, got swept away with puffing himself up and sprinted over the factual line,” Dowd wrote in the Times. “One of his top aides yelled at me and told me I wouldn’t be allowed into Robert Bork’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings, which Biden was chairing. But Biden himself was friendly and fair to me afterward, even when I wrote pieces that were highly critical of the way he conducted the Anita Hill hearings and ripped on him for his hair plugs. He was so un-vengeful that I began to doubt he was really Irish. (His middle name is Robinette, after all.)” Dowd concluded that “Biden’s gaffes, logorrhea, puffery and handsiness are part of the messy package that is Uncle Joe. So are his empathy, sentimentality and loyalty.”

Biden loved this column. He brought it up during a virtual fundraiser with “Veep” actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus on July 23 and joked about Dowd’s line that she sometimes wonders whether he is really Irish. “We can’t hold grudges,” Biden told donors. “We’ve got to heal.”

On July 28, Biden held a news conference the day after Politico reported that former senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), one of the four co-chairs of Biden’s search committee, had been complaining to donors that Harris lacked any “remorse” for ambushing Biden at the debate. When Dodd asked Harris during an interview about what he felt was a gimmick and cheap shot, he complained later, she laughed and answered: “That’s politics.”

Biden was not asked about the story that day, but a photographer captured his talking points if he had been. “Do not hold grudges,” Biden had written on personal stationary under Harris’s name.

Harris is the fourth woman to represent a major party on a national ticket. She follows in the footsteps of vice-presidential picks Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Sarah Palin in 2008, plus Hillary Clinton in 2016. Those three lost.

Palin offered some heartfelt advice to Harris based on her negative 2008 experience as John McCain’s running mate. “Climb upon Geraldine Ferraro’s and my shoulders,” the former Alaska governor wrote on Instagram, “and from the most amazing view in your life consider lessons we learned: 1) out of the chute trust no one new; 2) fight mightily to keep your own team with you – they know you, know your voice, and most importantly are trustworthy; 3) don’t get muzzled – connect with media and voters in your own unique way. Some yahoos running campaigns will suffocate you with their own self-centered agenda so remember YOU were chosen for who YOU are. So stay connected with America as you smile and ignore deceptive ‘handlers’ trying to change you.” She added: “Don’t forget the women who came before you.”

Harris is the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica, which means she could be the first Asian American and first Black vice president if she wins. She would also be the first graduate of a historically Black college. (This is the first time since 1984 that the Democratic ticket does not include an Ivy League graduate.)

And Harris is the first person on a national ticket to have a surname that comes from Sanskrit. Kamala means “lotus.” She shares a name with a Hindu goddess and attended a Hindu temple while growing up in the Bay Area. As an adult, she identifies as Baptist. The man she married in 2014, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish, as are her two stepchildren from his first marriage. They call her “Momala,” which the AP notes is meant to rhyme with the Yiddish term “mamaleh.” 

Biden has promised to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court if he wins, which would be another major milestone.

First, though, come the conventions and then the debates. Harris will face off with Vice President Pence on Oct. 7 at the University of Utah. “I’ll see you in Salt Lake City,” Pence said during a rally in Arizona.

• Michael Scherer: “Inside Biden’s unusual VP pick process: Tough questions, 11 finalists and many lawyers.”
• Annie Linskey and Vanessa Williams: “Harris pick creates an emotional moment for Black women.”
• Joanna Slater: “Harris pick sparks delight in India and Jamaica.”
• Michael Kranish: “Harris and Biden once were at odds on criminal justice issues. Finding common ground helped lead him to pick her as his running mate.”
• DeNeen Brown: “Shirley Chisholm blazed the way for Kamala.”
• Kevin Uhrmacher, Chris Alcantara and Daniela Santamariña: “Women of color make up about one-fifth of the U.S. population but a far smaller share of major elective offices.”
• Aaron Blake: “Trump donated to Harris’s campaign for California attorney general, sending $6,000 her way in 2011 and 2013. Ivanka Trump also contributed $2,000 to Harris in 2014.”

• The Editorial Board says Harris is prepared to serve as president should anything happen to Biden, who, if elected, would be 78 at the start of his term.
• Karen Tumulty: “The qualities that hampered Harris’s campaign could be the ones that make her an ideal running mate.”
• E.J. Dionne: “Harris was the safest, most experienced and most tested choice Biden could make.”  
• Jen Rubin: “Harris was Joe Biden’s boldest and most qualified pick.” 
• Dan Morain, former Sacramento Bee editorial page editor: “America is about to see what smart Republicans saw in Kamala Harris years ago.”

• CNBC: Wall Street executives are relieved Biden picked Harris.
• Recode: Harris, who has been friendly with tech executives, is the choice Biden needed to win over Silicon Valley.
• Haaretz: “Harris could tip U.S.-Israel ties.”
• Atlantic: “In attacking Harris’ record on crime policy, her critics are ignoring how politics actually works.”
• Politico: “Running mates don’t usually matter. Kamala Harris might.”
• The New Republic’s Walter Shapiro: “The truest bond between [Biden and Harris] may be the simplest: They are both politicians in the best sense of the word. They understand elections, Capitol Hill, and how to be tough without losing your sense of humor.”
• San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board: “Harris will be difficult for the Trump campaign to caricature as ideologue, try as it might.”
• Los Angeles Times Editorial Board: “Biden has shown that, unlike the man currently holding the job he seeks, he’s not afraid of strong women.”
• Entertainment Weekly: “That’s spicy,” said Maya Rudolph, who played Harris on “Saturday Night Live,” in reaction to the news.

• National Review: “Biden has named his 2020 running mate: authoritarianism.”
• From BuzzFeed: “During a call with reporters … Trump’s reelection campaign gave mixed messaging on Harris’s record as attorney general in California. When asked how the fight for suburban women could potentially play out, Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said voters understand they’ll be safer with Trump. Blackburn then deferred to senior campaign adviser Katrina Pierson’s earlier comments, conversely saying Harris was being overly tough on crime.”
• Fox News’s Tucker Carlson repeatedly mispronounced Harris’s name on his show and was unrepentant when corrected by a guest. (Deadline)
• Facebook users are spreading the false claim that Harris wouldn’t be able to serve as president because she’s the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica. Harris is eligible to serve as president because she’s a natural-born U.S. citizen. (AP)

He would face immense pressure to replace her with another Black woman, such as Rep. Karen Bass (D), one of the finalists in the veepstakes, but he could also appoint the state’s first Latino senator. In addition to Bass, the Los Angeles Times names these other Democrats as potential choices: Reps. Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff; Secretary of State Alex Padilla; Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia; Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf or San Francisco Mayor London Breed; Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, who served as Obama’s labor secretary, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti; and state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins of San Diego.

“Or he could stick to a politician who recently won statewide office, evidence of the ability to defend the Senate seat when the post comes before California voters in the 2022 election,” the story notes. “Along with Padilla, that short list includes Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, Controller Betty Yee and Treasurer Fiona Ma. Picking a statewide-office holder would also give Newsom a twofer since he would then have to appoint a replacement for the remainder of that person’s term in office.”

“Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has endorsed the baseless theory and made a slew of racist remarks on video, won a Republican primary runoff in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District,” Isaac Stanley-Becker and Rachael Bade report. “Her victory, in a northwestern swath of the state that has favored Republicans by wide margins, sets her up to become QAnon’s first devotee in Congress. [She] defeated John Cowan, a neurosurgeon. She will face Democrat Kevin Van Ausdal, an IT specialist, in November. GOP leaders … have watched her ascent with some unease. … But a spokesman for the House Republican fundraising arm declined to say Tuesday whether the group would back its nominee. … In a victory speech, [Greene] lambasted the ‘Republican establishment,’ in addition to Democrats and the news media, according to a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution who said he was quickly escorted from her campaign’s celebration. The nominee singled out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), calling her ‘anti-American’ and adding, ‘We’re going to kick that b—- out of Congress,’ according to the reporter. … Her Democratic opponent faces an uphill climb to keep her from Congress.” 

“The Minnesota Democrat was leading Anton Melton-Meaux 57 percent to 39 percent with 96 percent of precincts reported when the race was called, putting to bed weeks of speculation that her career on Capitol Hill could be cut short by an opponent who argued Omar was more interested in fame than representing her district,” Rachael Bade reports. “Residents of the Minneapolis-area district, however, chose the Somali refugee and first Muslim woman in Congress over Melton-Meaux, who raised a staggering $3.2 million last quarter from Omar critics around the nation. The race had become one of the most expensive House primaries this year, with each candidate bringing in north of $4 million.”

“If election officials in Georgia and Wisconsin wanted to prove one thing during primary and runoff elections Tuesday, it was that they could do a better job managing lines, operating equipment and counting mail ballots than they did in earlier contests this year,” Amy Gardner and Dan Simmons report. “They appeared to succeed, with voters trickling in to the polls with virtually no wait times and election workers processing a crush of absentee ballots with no major difficulties. … Tuesday’s contests in both states, as well as in Connecticut, Minnesota and Vermont, drew much lower turnout than previous elections this year, a contributor to the relative quiet. But state and local officials said the bigger factor was what they learned from their earlier stumbles — and how they used the intervening weeks to avoid them this time. … Election officials warned that Tuesday’s successes are no guarantee that Nov. 3, when tens of millions more voters are expected to turn out, will unfold as smoothly. It also was too early to say how long various counties would take to complete their count of mail ballots, and what that might signal about the fall.” 

The result will keep a referendum on partisan gerrymandering off the November ballot in Oregon. The court’s brief order provided no reasoning, with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor noting their dissent, Robert Barnes reports. The action was in line with similar cases from Alabama, Idaho, Wisconsin and elsewhere in which the court has put on hold judicial orders that provided pandemic-related relief over the objections of state election officials. The court has said that it disfavors judicial action that comes too close to an election and that it defers to local leaders.

“George Washington would have had a hard time beating me before the plague came in,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. In fact, the president trailed Biden in head-to-head matchups before the first coronavirus cases were confirmed.

“A top Food and Drug Administration career official, Marks is likely to decide in the next several months whether a coronavirus vaccine is safe and effective enough to be given to tens of millions of Americans. That may be among the most critical decisions in the history of the agency, one with sweeping health, economic and political consequences,” Laurie McGinley reports. “The way the vaccine decision is handled could have an impact on the presidential election and whether enough people are willing to get vaccinated to curb the pandemic and revive the economy. … If historical precedent holds, ‘the buck will stop’ with Marks, said Jason Schwartz, an expert on vaccine decision-making at the Yale School of Public Health. ‘He will ultimately be the single most critical figure in the vaccine decision.’ That makes Marks the most important government employee most people have never heard of. … A close associate predicted Marks on vaccines ‘won’t play the political game one way or another. If he gets pushed, he’ll go public or maybe resign. He won’t be quiet.’” 

• U.S. deaths once again topped 1,000 a day, as Florida and Georgia set their highest singe-day death tolls. “At least 160,000 Americans have died of covid-19,” Brady Dennis reports. “Texas and California also ranked among the deadliest counts with 220 and 109 dead, respectively. Wisconsin surpassed 1,000 coronavirus-related deaths since the state’s first reported death in mid-March. … Puerto Rico, Tennessee, North Dakota, Montana and West Virginia tied for their highest seven-day death average.”
• Trump said the U.S. has reached a deal with Moderna to buy 100 million doses of its vaccine. “Moderna separately said the deal for its vaccine, mRNA-1273, is worth $1.53 billion and will give the federal government the option to purchase up to 400 million additional doses. The U.S. has already invested $955 million in Moderna’s vaccine development, bringing its total investment up to $2.48 billion,” CNBC reports. “Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine is in late-stage human trials, which will test its efficacy and safety in 30,000 people. The Massachusetts-based company previously said it could expect results as early as October.”

“Trump’s senior aides acknowledged on Tuesday that they are providing less financial assistance for the unemployed than the president initially advertised amid mounting blowback from state officials of both parties,” Jeff Stein, Tony Romm and Erica Werner report. “Senior White House officials [said publicly] that the maneuver only guarantees an extra $300 per week for unemployed Americans — with states not required to add anything to their existing state benefit programs to qualify for the federal benefit. … The president and his senior advisers have expressed optimism that the economy does not need an additional package following the White House’s executive maneuvers. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows — the president’s emissary in negotiations with congressional Democrats — left Washington this week for an unspecified amount of time. White House officials are privately studying other options for approving economic boosts without a deal with Congress. … For example, they are exploring whether more money could be repurposed for emergency pandemic relief. … The president’s favorite economic indicator — the stock market — began to slide Tuesday amid growing evidence that an additional aid package was not on the way.” 

• Many workers are not getting the paid sick leave they were promised because Trump’s Labor Department broadened exemptions. “Congress passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act in March to ensure workers at small- and medium-size companies were able to take paid leave if they or a family member became sick with the coronavirus. The law exempts health-care providers as well as companies with more than 500 employees,” Eli Rosenberg reports. “But an Office of the Inspector General report noted that a move by the Labor Department to more broadly expand how they categorize health-care providers ended up leaving far more workers without a guarantee of paid sick leave than the agency’s estimate of 9 million.” 
• The economic crisis in Kentucky has many voters furious with Mitch McConnell, even though the Senate majority leader is still heavily favored to win reelection in the red state. “In more than two dozen interviews, out-of-work residents, struggling restaurant owners and other business leaders, as well as a cadre of annoyed food, housing and labor rights groups, all said they are in dire need of more support from Congress — the likes of which McConnell has not been able to provide,” Tony Romm reports.

“The metaphor of a marathon doesn’t capture the wearisome, confounding, terrifying and yet somehow dull and drab nature of this ordeal for many Americans, who have watched leaders fumble the pandemic response from the start. Marathons have a defined conclusion, but 2020 feels like an endless slog — uphill, in mud,” Brady Dennis, Jeremy Duda and Joel Achenbach report. “Historians say that not even the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed an estimated 675,000 people in the United States, had the same kind of all-encompassing economic, social and cultural impact. ‘One of the biggest differences between this virus and [the 1918] influenza is the duration,’ said John Barry, author of ‘The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History.’ With coronavirus, he said, the incubation period is longer, patients with symptoms tend to be sick longer, and many take longer to recover. Barry said leaders did not make sufficiently clear early on the simple epidemiological truth that this would be a painfully drawn-out event.”

• The Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences canceled their college football seasons. Trump called this a “tragic mistake.” (Adam Kilgore)
• A judge ordered ICE to stop transferring undocumented immigrants into a Virginia center where there’s an outbreak. (Antonio Olivo) 
• A North Carolina dog that died after suffering an “acute illness” tested positive for the coronavirus. The death could mark a rare fatal case of covid-19 in a pet. (NBC News)
• Wearing a neck gaiter may be worse than wearing no mask at all. Researchers from Duke University discovered, in testing, that a breathable neck gaiter made out of a polyester spandex material did a poor job protecting people from the virus because it does not restrict air. (Allyson Chiu)
• Trump said he won’t hold rallies if they require keeping seats empty for social distancing. (Anne Gearan)
• South Dakota health officials will test EMS, law enforcement and fire department personnel statewide starting two weeks after the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally ends. The 10-day event, expected to draw a crowd of 250,000, started Friday. Officials said South Dakota residents will be traced by the state’s health agency, but cases from out-of-state attendees will be handled by other states. That means an outbreak resulting from Sturgis would not necessarily show up in South Dakota data. (Chelsea Janes)
• Photos of maskless bikers packing bars in South Dakota prompted New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R), who is up for reelection, to make masks mandatory for gatherings of more than 100 people ahead of Laconia Motorcycle Week. Last year, that event also attracted an estimated 250,000 people. (Antonia Farzan)
• Marion County, Fla., Sheriff Billy Woods prohibited his deputies from wearing masks at work. In an email to deputies, he disputed the idea that masks are effective and made clear that he would brook no dissent. (Tim Elfrink)
• Maryland’s seven-day average caseload dropped to its lowest level in weeks, as the state recorded a new low in its positivity rate. (Dana Hedgpeth) 
• New Zealand is investigating the possibility that its first coronavirus cases in more than three months were imported by freight. Testing is already underway at an Auckland cold-storage facility where a man from the infected family worked. (Reuters)
• Israel, desperate to rein in a resurgent outbreak, called in its army to take over testing and contact-tracing operations. (Steve Hendrix)

“The scene on the Beirut waterfront after the devastating explosion last week looks straight out of ‘Mad Max,’ a tortured landscape washed in sepia, littered with the husks of cars. The expanse is dotted with small signs of previous lives: torn fabric, ice-pop boxes, a cookbook somehow still intact and open to a recipe for spaghetti squash with clam-and-mushroom sauce. An unidentified black liquid, perhaps the residue of melted garbage bags, continues to slither down hills of dirt and concrete, sticking to the shoes of search teams,” Sarah Dadouch reports. “When 2,750 tons of highly volatile ammonium nitrate exploded in a warehouse, the blast left a crater nearly 50 yards deep and destroyed the port’s towering grain silos, spewing torrents of yellow corn that piled up into mountains and spilled into the water. At least 171 people were killed.” 

• “Cans of paint thinner and other combustible material may have been stored alongside highly explosive ammonium nitrate in a Beirut warehouse and then caught fire, igniting the blast that devastated the city, according to a fire official at the port,” Loveday Morris reports.

“Emilio Lozoya, a former top official in Peña Nieto’s 2012 campaign, made the accusations in an appearance Tuesday before Mexican prosecutors, according to Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero. Lozoya said he handled the bribes from the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht on the orders of Peña Nieto and one of his top aides, Luis Videgaray,” Mary Beth Sheridan reports. “The allegations are the most serious yet against Peña Nieto, who has maintained that his campaign did not receive illegal donations. While Mexican politics has long been permeated by corruption, no president or former leader in modern times has been charged with a criminal offense.”

Here’s the moment when the Democratic ticket came together, via Biden’s campaign photographer:

Pop star Taylor Swift was pleased with the choice:

The other finalists all congratulated Harris, including Michigan’s governor:

The New York Daily News went with a pun on its front page. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work with the correct pronunciation of Harris’s name:

Stephen Colbert thinks Harris must be looking forward to debating Vice President Pence:

Seth Meyers said the Trump administration is sabotaging the Postal Service ahead of the election: