WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Kamala Harris wants to make use of the joint campaign appearance with President Joe Biden on Monday in the commercial city of Pittsburgh to say: US steel should remain in domestic ownership – coinciding with the White House’s earlier opposition to the planned sale of the corporate to Nippon Steel from Japan.
Harris “is expected to say that U.S. Steel should remain domestically owned and operated and emphasize her commitment to always standing by American steelworkers,” her campaign team said.
That's much like Biden, who said in March he opposed the potential sale of U.S. Steel to Japan in an effort to “better preserve strong American steel companies powered by American steelworkers.” But it's still a vital policy position for the vice chairman, who has offered relatively few of them since Biden abandoned his re-election bid and endorsed Harris in July.
Harris has since been careful to portray herself as a “new way forward” while remaining loyal to Biden and the policies he pushed. Her demeanor is kind of different – and in some cases she is pushing to maneuver faster than Biden's administration – but the general goal of expanding government programs to support the center class is identical.
Biden and Harris participate Pittsburgh's Labor Day Parade is the primary time the 2 have spoken together at a campaign event because the surprise election victory that gave Democrats recent enthusiasm for the 2024 election. Biden, 81, has spent most of his long political profession constructing close ties with unions, however the White House said the president asked to introduce Harris on the joint appearance – moderately than the same old reverse – because he wanted to spotlight her work on behalf of union members specifically.
Harris' team says voters within the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania have been re-energized since Harris rose to the highest of the ballot six weeks ago, with tens of hundreds of latest volunteers coming forward to campaign for her and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota.
Harris and Biden's appearance on the parade, one in all the biggest gatherings of its kind within the country, is an element of a blitzkrieg in swing states, lower than two months before Election Day. Harris first traveled to Detroit on Monday for a campaign rally before meeting Biden in Pennsylvania.
Harris, 59, is attempting to appeal to voters by positioning herself as a departure from toxic politics and rejecting the caustic rhetoric of her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, while also searching for to place the Biden era behind her. Harris' events are very different from Biden's, which usually draw small crowds, however the vice chairman's agenda is full of the identical issues he has championed: containing the fee of prescribed drugs, defending the Affordable Care Act, economic growth, helping families afford child care — and now her position on U.S. Steel.
“We are fighting for a future where we build what I call an opportunity economy, so that every American has the opportunity to own a home, start a business, and build wealth and generational prosperity,” Harris said at a recent rally, echoing Biden's call to grow the economy “from the bottom out and the middle up.”
Harris has promised to push for lower food prices to combat inflation. In some cases, she has also moved more quickly than Biden, calling for tax cuts and incentives to encourage homeownership and eliminating the federal tax on suggestions for service sector staff. But she has also offered relatively few details on major policies, as a substitute continuing to side with Biden on key issues.
The vice chairman briefly appeared onstage with Biden after he delivered his speech on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention last month, however the two haven’t shared a microphone at a political event since Biden ran against Trump. At the time, the campaign notably deployed Harris as their lead spokesperson on abortion rights, a difficulty they imagine may also help them win in November as restrictions increase and health take care of women deteriorates following Roe v. Wade.
Since the ticket exchange, each have appeared at official events and met together on the White House.
For greater than three and a half years, Harris was one in all Biden's most significant supporters. Now the tide has turned, as Harris is set to assist Biden – who hails from Scranton, Pennsylvania – win the doubtless decisive state. Biden, for his part, has kept a low profile because the end of his re-election campaign. He was last on the White House on August 19 and has been vacationing in Southern California and Delaware since then.
Yet whilst she took over leadership of the Democratic Party, Harris stood firmly by Biden's side. In her first interview during her candidacy, Harris passionately defended Biden's record and his suitability for the job, despite the events of the past two months that ended along with her running for the Oval Office and Biden doomed to failure.
“I have spent many hours with him, whether in the Oval Office or in the Situation Room. He has the intelligence, commitment, judgment and attitude that I believe the American people deserve from their president,” Harris said.
Of Trump, she added: “The former president has none of this.”
Harris said in a CNN interview last week that working with Biden was “one of the greatest honors of my career.”
The vice chairman also defended the administration's record on the southern border and immigration, one in all the administration's most persistent and vexed problems, stating that her job was to handle the “root causes” in other countries that lead to frame crossings, despite Republicans calling her a “border czar.”
While the vice chairman spoke more forcefully concerning the plight of civilians in Gaza as Israel's war against Hamas there enters its eleventh month, he also supported Biden's efforts to arm Israel and broker a hostage-taking deal and ceasefire.
Before their joint appearance in Pittsburgh, Harris and Biden met with the U.S. hostage negotiating team within the White House Situation Room to debate further efforts to succeed in an agreement that may secure the discharge of the remaining hostages.
image credit : www.mercurynews.com