Former President Barack Obama endorsed an open Democratic primary process at the convention next month — less than an hour after former President Bill Clinton endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
“I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges,” Obama said in a statement, which did not mention Harris. “I believe that Joe Biden’s vision of a generous, prosperous, and united America that provides opportunity for everyone will be on full display at the Democratic Convention in August.”
Earlier Sunday, a joint statement between Clinton and former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton said the two were backing Harris: “Now is the time to support Kamala Harris and fight with everything we’ve got to elect her.”
Their statements came soon after President Joe Biden announced he would not be seeking reelection and endorsed Harris to replace him at the top of the ticket. Both former presidents Obama and Clinton thanked Biden, who served as Obama’s vice president, for the current president’s service.
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Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance is weighing in on Kamala Harris’ candidacy for the top of Democrats’ ticket, a preview of the messaging that’s sure to come from the Republican Party.
“Over the last four years she co-signed Biden’s open border and green scam policies that drove up the cost of housing and groceries,” the Ohio senator wrote on X. “She owns all of these failures, and she lied for nearly four years about Biden’s mental capacity — saddling the nation with a president who can’t do the job.”
And though Harris appears to be the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, Vance kept his warning open-ended, saying that he and Trump are “ready to save America, whoever’s at the top of the Democrat ticket.”
President Joe Biden’s campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon reassured the campaign’s top leadership team during a 4 p.m. call that “this is the team that will beat Donald Trump,” she said, according to one person on the call who was granted anonymity to describe a private meeting.
She said the campaign will operate in compliance with Democratic National Committee rules, which is now faced with whether to move forward with a virtual roll call or to an open convention. She reassured them that their jobs were safe but suggested they could also expect to see new faces in the mix.
