America ready for woman president, says Kamala Harris as Trump rivals in tight race

Vice President Kamala Harris, who is contesting against Republican nominee Donald Trump in the 2024 US Presidential election on November 5, said she thinks that America is ready for a woman of colour in the White House.

With less than two weeks left for the much-awaited US Presidential election, the contest is getting all the more exciting with both Democrat candidate Harris and Trump trying their best to woo voters.

Polls show a neck-and-neck race between Harris and Trump both nationally and in the seven key battleground states.

‘Americans know their president has a plan’ 

In an interview with NBC News, Harris on Tuesday said: “Come to my events and you will see there are men and women."  

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“The experience that I am having is one in which it is clear that regardless of someone’s gender, they want to know that their president has a plan to lower costs, that their president has a plan to secure America in the context of our position around the world," she further said.

Harris also said she thinks that the upcoming US election is important as it is not just about turning the page, “but closing the page and the chapter on an era that suggests that Americans are divided."

If elected, Harris would be the first female president in US history and only the second nonwhite one after Barack Obama.

During the interview, Harris was asked why she was not talking about the history-making potential of her candidacy. She dismissed a question, saying, “Well, I’m clearly a woman. The point that most people really care about is can you do the job and do you have a plan to actually focus on them.”

Harris also confidently said that she isn’t concerned about sexism stopping her.

“My challenge is the challenge of making sure I can talk with and listen to as many voters as possible and earn their vote. And I will never assume that anyone in our country should elect a leader based on their gender or their race, instead that that leader needs to earn the vote based on substance and what they will do to address challenges and to inspire people,” she said.

Harris on Biden’s performance

In the NBC interview, Harris was asked about President Joe Biden’s performance in the debate against Trump after which there was pressure on him to step aside from the race, to which she said she was honest in what she saw of him behind the scenes.

“Joe Biden is extremely accomplished, experienced and capable in every way that anyone would want if they’re president,” the Vice President said.  

“Joe Biden has done the work that has been about being a leader on what we have done to fix so much of what has been broken in terms of the economy because of Donald Trump’s mismanagement. I speak with not only sincerity but with a real firsthand account of watching him do this work,” she said.

‘Need to put back in protections of Roe v. Wade’

Abortion rights, one of the key agendas for the US elections also surfaced during the interview.  Harris emphasised that she is not willing in find a potential compromise with Republicans to restore some abortion rights nationwide after the end of Roe v. Wade.

“I don’t think we should be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body,” she said.

Cheney, a former House member from Wyoming, who was campaigning with Harris in Michigan on Monday, said that she is “pro-life” but that she is nonetheless concerned about restrictions on medical treatments like in vitro fertilisation in the post-Roe environment.

Harris, however, said the support from Cheney and other Republicans should not be taken as a sign of her softening her commitment to abortion rights.

“She is pro-life, but she also understands the pain and the tragedy that has happened since Donald Trump allowed Roe v. Wade to be overturned. So that’s my point about what is non negotiable,” Harris said.

The Vice President declined to get into the specifics when she asked whether she suggested there might be at least some bipartisan support in Congress for abortion-rights legislation. She dismissed the idea as “hypothetical.”

“We need to put back in the protections of Roe v. Wade,” Harris said.

With inputs from NBC News.