Kamala Harris skips Obama’s speech

Barack Obama will anoint Kamala Harris as the party’s best hope for the future on Tuesday, but there will be one person conspicuously absent.

Barack Obama will anoint Kamala Harris as the party’s best hope for the future at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night, but there will be one person conspicuously absent during the former President’s blockbuster speech — Ms Harris herself.

The Democratic presidential nominee, who spoke at the Chicago event on Monday before President Joe Biden’s swan-song address, will instead hold a campaign rally in Milwaukee on Tuesday, raising eyebrows among some observers.

Mr Biden was forced to abandon his re-election bid in the face of growing pressure from Democrats, including Mr Obama, announcing his decision in a bombshell statement on July 21 and endorsing his Vice President to replace him on the ticket.

But while senior Democrats quickly fell in line, Mr Obama did not endorse Ms Harris for another five days, after initially signalling he would support an open nominating process at this month’s convention.

Sources close to Mr Obama previously downplayed Republicans’ suggestions that the “snub” showed a rift between the pair, who have a decades-long history of supporting each other’s political campaigns.

The DNC is taking place in Chicago this week. Picture: Agustin Paullier/AFP

“People close to Mr Obama, who has positioned himself as an impartial elder statesman above intraparty machinations, said not to read too much into it — and had no alternate candidate in mind when he made the decision not to immediately endorse Ms Harris,” New York Times columnist Glenn Thrush wrote on July 21.

“Endorsing too early now would also be a political mistake — fuelling criticism that Ms Harris’s nomination, should it come, was a coronation rather than the best possible consensus under rushed circumstances, they said. Instead, Mr Obama sees his role as helping to quickly ‘unite the party once we have a nominee’, a person familiar with his thinking said.”

Mr Obama will use his speech to position Ms Harris, the first black and Indian female presidential nominee, as the heir to his legacy as the first black person ever elected to the White House.

He posted on social media that his Democratic National Convention address will lay out “what’s at stake” and why Ms Harris and her running mate Tim Walz “should be our next president and vice president”.

The pair first met in 2004 at a campaign fundraiser, when Mr Obama was an Illinois state legislator running for Senate and Ms Harris was San Francisco’s district attorney, according to CNN.

In 2008, Ms Harris endorsed Mr Obama in the Democratic presidential primary against Hillary Clinton, and Mr Obama in turn endorsed Ms Harris in her 2010 campaign to become California’s attorney-general, describing her as a “dear, dear friend of mine”.

Barack Obama and Kamala Harris in 2010. Picture: Chip Somodevilla/Getty/AFP

The former President sparked controversy in 2013 for calling Ms Harris “the best looking attorney general” at a California fundraiser, with Mr Obama reportedly phoning her hours later to apologise for what was deemed by some to be a sexist comment.

The Harris campaign revealed it had received Mr Obama’s endorsement in a video posted on July 26 which showed the Vice President taking a call on speakerphone from the former President and his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama.

“We called to say Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office,” Mr Obama tells Ms Harris over the phone.

His highly anticipated speech on Tuesday night will amp up the already buoyant mood in Chicago, where Mr Biden delivered his own emotional speech late on Monday.

Ahead of Mr Obama’s blockbuster cameo, Ms Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, will testify to his wife’s human qualities before she symbolically accepts the nomination Thursday.

“[He] will show America the Kamala Harris only he knows,” said Michael Tyler, Harris-Walz communications director. “As America has seen the last few weeks, she’s joyful, she’s empathetic and she’s tough. That’s what differentiates us from the other side.”

With the party united and Ms Harris polling strongly, Democrats are making clear they believe they can defeat Donald Trump.

Ms Harris will formally accept the party’s nomination. Picture: Robyn Beck/AFP

The Republican candidate — who narrowly survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13 — had seemed set to regain power in November until Mr Biden up-ended the race by dropping out and endorsing his Vice President.

Comparisons are already being made by Democratic faithful to Obama’s historic 2008 campaign, where a tidal wave of enthusiasm carried him to the White House.

Ms Harris, who was received rapturously in Chicago at her debut appearance before Mr Biden spoke, will hold a rally on Tuesday in the Milwaukee basketball arena where Mr Trump attended the Republican convention just a month ago.

The choice of the 18,000-seat arena appears to be a deliberate attempt to needle Mr Trump, who has been clearly rattled by the fact that 59-year-old Harris, unlike Mr Biden, is able to draw the kinds of crowds he has long attracted to his events.

Trying to pry media attention away from the Democratic convention, Mr Trump is holding events all week and on Tuesday spoke about what he says is Ms Harris’ “anti-police” stance.

At an event in Howell, Michigan, he attacked what he called “the Kamala crime wave”.

“You can’t walk across the street to get a loaf of bread — you get shot,” he said flanked by police officers and their cars, claiming there has been a 43 per cent increase in violent crime.

Joe Biden gave his swan-song address on Monday. Picture: Charly Triballeau/AFP

While allies have pleaded publicly for Mr Trump to focus on policies and stop his barrage of personal insults against Ms Harris, he has not stopped.

On Monday the floor belonged to Mr Biden, who delivered a swan song after being forced to abandon his re-election bid amid deep concerns that at 81 he is too old and frail to defeat Mr Trump.

Mr Biden has recast what might have been a humiliating moment into a narrative of sacrifice, passing on the torch to his younger protege.

“It’s been the honour of my lifetime to serve as your President. I love the job, but I love my country more,” he said, wiping away a tear amid thunderous applause before embracing Ms Harris.

The other star speaker on Monday was Ms Clinton, who was the first female presidential nominee of a major party in 2016, but lost to Mr Trump in an election that opened up one of the most turbulent eras in recent US politics.

Ms Harris, Ms Clinton said, will be the one to break “the highest, hardest glass ceiling” in the country.

Twenty million people watched the first night of the DNC, ratings monitor Nielsen said, beating viewers for the inaugural evening of the Republican gathering that drew 18.1 million.

Local media reported that Chicago hotels housing convention attendees had received bomb threats, but city authorities did not comment.

— with AFP