Kamala Harris could be President of US, says Biden. A hint at presidential alternative?

US President Joe Biden, 81, remarked that Vice-President Kamala Harris “could be President of the United States” while addressing the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) annual convention. This comes amid increasing calls from Democrats for Biden to drop out of the race ahead of the upcoming November 5 presidential election.

“She’s not only a great vice-president, she could be President of the United States,” Biden said of Harris, 59, indicating her as the best-positioned candidate to replace him if he chooses to retire. However, Biden told the crowd that he had already made plans for the first 100 days of his second term.

If Kamala Harris replaces Biden and wins the presidential election, she will make history as the first woman of colour elected as President of the US.

Biden’s poor performance in the first presidential debate has sparked concerns within the Democratic Party about his fitness to serve a second term.

As calls for him to step aside grow, Vice-President Kamala Harris has emerged as the top alternative to replace him.

Kamala Harris, an Indian-American, is seen as the natural choice to take over the fight against Donald Trump. She is also ready to debate JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, in the vice-presidential debate.

The White House has declared Vice-President Kamala Harris as “the future of the Democratic Party”.

In a CNN poll, Harris and Trump are nearly tied, with 47% of registered voters supporting Trump and 45% backing Harris.

However, Biden gave no indication of plans to withdraw from the presidential race, reported the New York Post.

During his speech at the NAACP annual convention, he assured the crowd that he had already made plans for the first 100 days of his second term, including signing voting-rights legislation “come hell or high water”.

During his speech, Biden also criticised former President Donald Trump, who recently survived an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally.

After the attack, Biden called for Americans to “lower the temperature” of the campaign in a rare Oval Office address, reported New York Post.

“Donald Trump’s presidency was hell for black America,” Biden said at the convention. Referring to the National Guard’s response to the 2020 riots after George Floyd’s murder, he asked, “What the hell’s the matter with this man?”

Biden mocked Trump’s focus on growing “black jobs” and accused him of “lying like hell” about their respective black unemployment records.

“I love this phrase, ‘black jobs,’ it tells us a lot about the man and about his character,” Biden said. “Folks, I know what a black job is. It’s the Vice-President of the United States. I know what a black job is: the first black president in American history, Barack Obama,” he added.

The president also condemned Trump for spreading the birtherism lie about Barack Obama, stating that he wasn’t born in America and wasn’t a US citizen. Biden warned that Republicans would “undo everything the NAACP stands for.”