WASHINGTON: US Vice President Kamala Harris launched her election campaign Monday with a blistering personal attack on Donald Trump and vowed to win in November despite the "rollercoaster" of President Joe Biden's shock exit.
As she closed in on the Democratic party's nomination with the support of a slew of heavyweights and massive voter donations, Harris lashed out at Trump in her first speech to campaign workers since Biden's announcement Sunday.
Biden, 81, meanwhile made his first public remarks for nearly a week as he recovers from a bout of COVID-19.
He called in to the campaign meeting to say that dropping out — after mounting party and voter concerns over his health and mental acuity — had been the "right thing to do" and he praised Harris as "the best."
"We are going to win in November," a smiling Harris told campaign workers in her fiery speech at campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware.
She said she had gone to the Wilmington office to address them personally after the "rollercoaster" of the last few days.
Turning her fire on Trump, Harris referred to her past role as California's chief prosecutor, saying she "took on perpetrators of all kinds."
"Predators who abused women. Fraudsters who ripped off consumers. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump's type," she said to applause.
Harris also pledged to focus on the politically explosive issue of abortion, after Trump praised the Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn the long-held federal right to the procedure.
Limitless optimism
Biden dropped out on Sunday and endorsed Harris after three weeks of intensifying pressure, triggered by a disastrous debate performance against Trump.
Aiming to become the first woman president in US history, the 59-year-old Harris won the backing of a seemingly unassailable number of Democrats.
Notably among them was powerful former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said she endorsed Harris "with immense pride and limitless optimism".
The major AFL-CIO union federation also gave its formal endorsement on Monday.
Donors have rallied behind Harris, pouring a record $81 million into her campaign in the 24 hours after Biden stood aside.
The campaign claimed the haul was the largest one-day sum in presidential history — and that, among the 888,000 grassroots donors, some 60 percent were making their first 2024 contribution.
In his comments, Biden pledged to keep working on key topics, including ending the war in Gaza.
Addressing Harris, he added: "I´m watching you kid. I love you."
An aide to Harris later said she would meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week during his Washington visit — separate from Biden's own planned sit-down.
Harris will not attend Netanyahu's address to Congress, the aide said, due to a previously scheduled event.
In a strikingly symbolic moment on Monday morning, Harris hosted a ceremony for college athletes at the White House while Biden remained stuck in isolation with COVID at his Delaware beach house.
The president will return to the White House on Tuesday, according to his official schedule, which was updated after his doctor reported that Biden's symptoms "have almost resolved completely."
Threat to democracy
Biden's stunning withdrawal has completely upended the 2024 race, transforming a long slog between two unpopular elderly men into one of the most compelling races in modern US history.
The move has jolted a demoralised party that Harris could now unify, and could give America its first female president.
It has also hit Republicans hard, with former president Trump, 78 — now the oldest presidential nominee in US history — having to completely retool a strategy that had been built around attacking Biden over his age and physical frailty.
Harris's entry not only flips the age issue, but puts Trump — a convicted felon also found liable of sexual assault — up against a woman and former prosecutor.
And Trump has seemingly found it hard to move on from Biden.
He launched a series of invective-filled social media posts after Biden quit, mocking the president's age and saying he and Harris posed a "threat to democracy."
Trump's running mate J.D. Vance echoed that line of attack at a rally in Ohio Monday, telling supporters that Harris had the momentum because "elite Democrats got in a smoke-filled room and decided to throw Joe Biden overboard."
"That is not how it works. That is a threat to democracy," he said.
