'I'm watching you, kid': Joe Biden dials into Harris's debut to campaign staff
President Joe Biden dropped in by conference call as Vice President Kamala Harris met Monday night in person with her full campaign staff for the first time since taking the torch from Biden as the likely Democratic presidential nominee.
“I watching you, kid. I’m watching you, kid," 81-year-year-old Biden told Harris, 59, before she delivered remarks to her campaign staff – which was previously Biden’s campaign staff – at the campaign’s headquarters in Wilmington. Del. "I love ya."
In remarks that lasted about 20 minutes, Harris praised Biden’s accomplishments as “unmatched in modern history" for a single presidential term.
“I know it's been a rollercoaster, and we're all filled with so many mixed emotions about this,” Harris said. “I just have to say: I love Joe Biden. I love Joe Biden.”
Inside the new Harris campaign headquarters, Biden posters were replaced with new "Harris for president" signs in a hasty makeover since Biden announced his withdrawal from the election Sunday afternoon.
Harris announced that she retained Jen O’Malley Dillon, who served as chair of the Biden campaign, to lead her presidential campaign. She said Biden’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, will remain in her role as well.
The Harris campaign said it raised a whopping $81 million in the 24 hours since Biden's exit. That includes donations from 880,000 individual donors ? 60% of whom made their first donations of the election cycle. It is the largest fundraising haul in one day for any candidate ever, according to the campaign.
Highlighting her differences with Trump
To make her case against former President Donald Trump, Harris sought to highlight sharp biographical differences with the Republican nominee.
"As a young prosecutor, when I was in the Alameda County District Attorney's office in California, I specialized in cases involving sexual abuse,” said Harris, a former prosecutor. "Donald Trump was found liable by a jury for committing sexual abuse.”
Harris continued: “As attorney General of California, I took on one of our country's largest for-profit colleges and put it out of business. Donald Trump ran a for-profit college, Trump University, that was forced to pay $25 million to the students it scammed."
Similar to Biden on the campaign trail, Harris vowed to fight for “reproductive freedom” if elected, take action to ban assault weapons and work to pass the John Lewis voting rights bill, among other policy priorities.
“Building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency. We here know when our middle class is strong, America is strong. And we know that's not the future Donald Trump is fighting for,” Harris said.
She ended her remarks saying, "God bless you all and God bless the United States of America ? and Joe Biden.”
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'I'm watching you, kid': Joe Biden dials into Harris's campaign debut
