Kamala Harris VP pick ‘accidentally leaked’

A tweet from a Democrat has sparked a political “firestorm” in the US after it appeared to reveal Kamala Harris’ running mate.

A tweet from a Democrat has sparked confusion after it appeared to reveal Kamala Harris’ running mate.

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker posted a tweet and video on Friday mistakenly revealing that Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, was Kamala Harris’s eagerly awaited vice-presidential pick.

“Proud to be back with so many leaders from across our region supporting @KamalaHarris for President and @JoshShapiroP for VP!” she posted.

She included a video with footage of recent press conferences that ended with the message: “Josh Shapiro for Vice President”.

Reporter Ernest Owens then claimed he had heard from sources that the post was due to be scheduled for Monday, but was accidentally published early.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. Picture: Hannah Beier / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

“Philly political sources have told me that a staffer connected with Mayor Cherelle Parker’s team accidentally posted the video today.

“The video was scheduled for Monday … after VP Kamala Harris was expected to announce her pick. It’s Josh Shapiro, y’all.

“I’m hearing there’s a ‘firestorm’ right now. I guess that’s an understatement.”

However, a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer was quick to shoot down the claim.

Sean Collins Walsh wrote: “Did Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L Parker just announce who Kamala Harris’ running mate will be? As it turns out, no.”

According to the Inquirer, a “source close to Parker” said: “This is not an announcement of anything. This is just the mayor showing her support for a longtime friend who we know is one of the people being considered.”

“It was merely the mayor supporting the governor’s potential vice presidential candidacy, which she did earlier this week also in Philadelphia,” the statement said.

Harris’ running mate will be revealed on Monday.

Harris secures Democratic presidential nomination

It comes as Harris effectively secured the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination on Friday, confirming her remarkable rise to party standard bearer in November’s showdown against Republican Donald Trump.

Harris, 59, was the sole candidate on the ballot for a five-day electronic vote of nearly 4,000 party convention delegates. The first Black and South Asian woman ever to secure a major party’s nomination, she will be officially crowned at a Chicago convention later this month.

Harris said on a phone-in to a party celebration she was “honoured” to have amassed the required support by the second day of the marathon virtual vote and declared: “We are going to win this election.” “And it is going to take all of us … We are going to talk with people about the fact that we are all in this together, and we stand together,” Harris said.

“And so, let’s let folks know that our campaign is about the future. And it’s about an expansion of rights and freedoms, and for the opportunity of everyone to not just get by, but to get ahead.” In the two weeks since Joe Biden ended his re-election bid, Harris has gained full control of the party, smashing fundraising records, packing arenas and erasing the polling leads Trump had built over the president.

US Vice President and Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Picture: KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP

“I couldn’t be prouder,” Biden posted on X after her nomination. The nomination milestone came with Harris preparing to hit the campaign trail next week for a swing across seven crucial election states alongside her yet-to-be-named running mate.

The roll call — held earlier than usual and online due to altered state registration rules — marks the official beginning of the 2024 convention, with the traditional festivities starting when the party faithful descends on Chicago on August 19.

Wave of momentum

Trump’s White House bid was turned upside down on July 21 when 81-year-old Biden, facing growing concerns about his age and lagging polling numbers, withdrew his candidacy and backed Harris.

Energetic and two decades younger than 78-year-old Trump, the vice president has made a fast start, raising $310 million in July, according to her campaign — more than double Trump’s haul.

She and her running mate are scheduled to rally Tuesday in Pennsylvania — a crucial swing state, where Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro is on the shortlist to join Harris’s ticket.

Biden beat Trump in Pennsylvania in 2020 by around 80,000 votes and it is seen as the biggest prize of the closely fought battlegrounds that decide the Electoral College system.

The Keystone State is part of the so-called blue wall that carried Biden to victory in 2020, alongside Michigan and Wisconsin, two states where Harris is due to woo crowds on Wednesday.

She will also tour the more racially diverse Sun Belt and southern states of Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina as she seeks to shore up the Black and Hispanic vote that had been peeling away from the Democrats.

Former President Donald Trump. Picture: SPENCER PLATT / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

In a sign that the Harris campaign is thinking big, US media reported that a raft of senior advisers from Barack Obama’s historic candidacies in 2008 and 2012 have taken up top positions with her.

While Biden made high-minded appeals for a return to civility and the preservation of democracy, Harris has focused on the future, making voters’ hard-fought “freedom” the touchstone of her campaign.

She and her allies have also been more aggressive than the Biden camp — mocking Trump for reneging on his commitment to a September debate and characterising the convicted felon as an elderly crook and “weird.”

Meanwhile Trump and his Republicans have struggled to adapt to their new adversary or hone their attacks against Harris — at first messaging that she was dangerously liberal on immigration and crime before pivoting to falsely accusing her of pretending to be Black for political purposes.

— with AFP