Joe Biden and Kamala Harris pledge a strong challenge to Donald Trump, and a path out of crisis

Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris made their debut as running mates in a high school gymnasium Wednesday, pledging to lead the country out of the coronavirus crisis amid an onslaught of attacks from President Donald Trump as the two national tickets went head to head for the first time, less than three months before Election Day.

The first full day for the newly announced Democratic presidential ticket offered a glimpse of how two once-bitter rivals from opposite coasts and different generations will try to unite Americans around their platform. Projecting warmth toward each other, they sketched out a vision of recovery from the nation’s crises surrounding public health, the economy and racial injustice — challenges that, they argued, Trump has made worse at every turn with an extraordinarily divisive presidency.

“We need more than a victory on November 3,” Harris said. “We need a mandate that proves that the past few years do not represent who we are or who we aspire to be.”

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Harris, a Californian who once served as attorney general of the state, made clear that part of her campaign role would be demonstrating her skills as a prosecutor to build a case against Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, methodically detailing what she cast as the administration’s failures in combating the coronavirus, reopening the economy and creating conditions under which schools could reopen safely this fall.

“Let me tell you, as somebody who has presented my fair share of arguments in court, the case against Donald Trump and Mike Pence is open and shut,” Harris said.

Other contours of Harris’ role in the campaign also started coming into focus Wednesday. A Biden adviser described Harris as well-positioned to connect with Black and Latino voters across the country as well as with suburban women, saying that the campaign expected her presence on the ticket to drive turnout in Arizona, Florida and Texas in particular, as well as in communities of color nationally.

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People familiar with Harris’ plans said they expected her to be a major presence on the virtual fundraising circuit, and she and Biden, the former vice president, held a grassroots fundraiser Wednesday night in an ornate ballroom of the Wilmington hotel where Biden announced his 1972 Senate candidacy. There, Biden announced that in the past 24 hours, the campaign had raised $26 million, with 150,000 first-time contributors.

More fundraisers, such as a Bay Area virtual reception, are also planned for Harris, according to invitations. And her outreach to key Democratic Party constituencies is also underway — an event with members of the Jewish community, for example, is in the works, according to people familiar with the planning.

Trump, who has unleashed sexist attacks on Harris, called her “a very risky pick” at a news conference as he referred to “horrible things” she had said about Biden during the primary campaign, suggesting those words would haunt the ticket.

“I’m sure that’ll be played back,” Trump said. “Not necessarily by me but others; it’ll be played back.”

Trump also defended his administration’s response to the virus, citing the number of tests that have been administered and bragging about the government’s efforts to ramp up production of ventilators to help gravely ill patients.

“We have better testing than any country in the world,” he said, adding that “when you look at the job that we’ve done compared to others, we’ve done a great job.”

As Biden and Harris spoke Wednesday before a group of socially distanced reporters — not the excited crowd of supporters that would normally greet such an occasion — they each nodded to the symbolism and historic nature of the moment. Wednesday was the third anniversary of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, at which Trump claimed there were “very fine people on both sides,” Biden noted.

“I knew we were in the battle for the soul of the nation,” Biden said. “That’s when I decided to run. And I’m proud now to have Senator Harris at my side in that battle, because she shares the same intensity I do.”

And the former vice president, Harris said, was the only person who had “served alongside the first Black president and has chosen the first Black woman as his running mate.”

Harris, the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica, is the first woman of color on a major party’s presidential ticket, and she and Biden argued that possibilities for American success stories abound despite the challenges that the nation confronts.

“Her story’s America’s story,” Biden said.

But they also laid out the staggering toll that the coronavirus crisis has taken on every facet of American life. And they made clear that they will seek to make the election a referendum on Trump’s handling of the outbreak.

“This virus has impacted almost every country, but there’s a reason it has hit America worse than any other advanced nation,” Harris said. “It’s because of Trump’s failure to take it seriously from the start. His refusal to get testing up and running. His flip-flopping on social distancing and wearing masks. His delusional belief that he knows better than the experts.”

The joint appearance, which came a day after Biden announced his decision, followed a highly public vice-presidential search process. Some of Biden’s allies made clear their reservations about Harris, which originated with her searing debate stage attack last summer on Biden’s record on busing, remarks that struck his team as cynical as she later struggled to articulate her own view on the issue.

But in recent weeks, some of the criticism of Harris from Democrats has played out through sexist language around whether she was overly “ambitious,” a dynamic she appeared to nod to when she said she was “mindful of all the heroic and ambitious women before me.”

But Harris and Biden repeatedly sought Wednesday to demonstrate that they shared a policy agenda and personal values, with Harris echoing Biden’s often-used language about “character” and demonstrating a fluency with his campaign proposals. They also emphasized the importance of Harris’ friendship with Beau Biden, Biden’s son who died in 2015.

“Kamala,” Joe Biden told his running mate, “you’ve been an honorary Biden for quite some time.”

Harris, too, invoked Beau Biden, in a moment loaded with emotion, recalling their frequent phone conversations when they were both state attorneys general.

“He really was the best of us,” Harris said. “And when I would ask him: ‘Where did you get that? Where did this come from?’ — he’d always talk about his dad.”

The joint appearance provided a striking reminder of how the pandemic has upended the usual rhythms of a presidential campaign. Four years ago, Hillary Clinton and her newly selected running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, made their debut appearance before thousands of people inside an arena in Miami. Biden, on the other hand, barely strayed from his Wilmington home for his appearance with Harris.

Although scores of onlookers gathered outside Alexis I. duPont High School, the event was closed to the public, depriving it of the typical soundtrack of big campaign speeches. There was no burst of applause, for instance, at the long-awaited moment when Biden introduced Harris as “your next vice president of the United States.” (After the event, Biden told a CNN reporter, “If the science allows us, you’re going to see us campaigning together.”)

Still, the current constraints did not interfere with online fundraising.

On Facebook, the Biden campaign sought to keep up the flow of donations Wednesday, running hundreds of ads prodding supporters to kick in small contributions.

The Facebook ads included some broad talking points, saying that Harris “is a leader in holding the Trump administration accountable” and that “Joe and Kamala are ready to fight for hardworking Americans who have been hurt by Trump and the GOP’s divisive politics.”

The Trump team was nearly immediate in its digital response, flooding its multimillion-dollar Facebook campaign with ads calling Harris a far-left liberal and painting the Biden-Harris ticket as “two of our Nation’s most RADICAL Democrats.”

The Trump campaign also turned the Harris announcement into a fundraising opportunity online, asking for small-dollar donations that it claimed would help air a 30-second, ready-for-TV ad attacking Harris as a member of the “radical left” and “a phony.”

In his own speech, Biden directly addressed Trump’s attacks on Harris, quoting some of the adjectives he had used, like “nasty.”

“It’s no surprise, because whining is what Donald Trump does best, better than any president in American history,” Biden said. “Is anyone surprised Donald Trump has a problem with a strong woman, or strong women across the board? We know that more is to come.”