ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic presidential nomination during the party’s national congress on Thursday, promising a “new way forward” as she prepares to challenge former President Donald Trump in November.
"On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America," Harris told the crowd in Chicago, Illinois.
"I will be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations," she said.
Harris emerged as the Democratic candidate after President Joe Biden quit the race.
Harris, 59, will enter the presidential race in November, along with running mate Tim Walz, when she seeks to become the first woman president in US history.
The US vice president also pledged to be a “president for all Americans” and took aim at Trump’s campaign.
"We know what a second Trump term would look like. It's all laid out in 'Project 2025,' written by his closest advisors, and its sum total is to pull our country back to the past," she said, referring to the Republican blueprint for a future government.
The US presidential election was originally set to be between incumbent President Biden and former President Trump.
However, Biden announced his withdrawal from the race in July and endorsed Harris as the Democratic candidate.
After Biden’s announcement, numerous Democratic donors, officials, and former presidents endorsed Harris to stand against Trump, who accepted the Republican nomination shortly after surviving an assassination attempt in July.
While Harris was giving her speech, Trump responded to her comments in real time on Truth Social.
“She’s done nothing for three and a half years but talk, and that’s what she’s doing tonight, she’s complaining about everything but doing nothing!” Trump said.
He also accused Harris of leading the US into “failing nation status.”
The United States will hold its 2024 election on November 5, and the next presidential inauguration is scheduled to be on January 20, 2025.
