Kamala Harris Recalls Zoom Call When She Was Asked To Be VP In First Interview With Joe Biden
Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are giving their first joint interview since they officially became running mates for the Democratic ticket.
Speaking with PEOPLE, Harris recalled the Zoom meeting between her and the former Vice President during which he asked her to be his running mate.
“I was in the room on the Zoom and Doug was in the other room, just waiting,” she remembered. “The intercom system in my family growing up is the same one we use now, which is to shout loudly from one room to the other. [laughs] The vice president had his cell phone because Jill was at an event. Then they asked for Doug, and I shouted, ‘Dougie, come!’”
“I was absolutely, and remain, so excited about our partnership,” she says, “and all the potential of our country that has yet to be achieved.”
“It’s really, really, really important to have someone [like Harris on the ticket] with this intellectual capacity, educational background, backbone and stature,” Biden adds. “It's going to change a lot.”
Biden, who officially accepted the Democratic nomination on Tuesday night (August 18), says he was first introduced to Harris by his late son Beau when she was California’s attorney general.
Harris says focusing on family is one of the main reasons she connects with Biden.
"That’s one of the things we have in common," she says. "My children don’t call me stepmom, they call me Momala. We’re a very modern family. Their mom is a close friend of mine. ... Joe and I have a similar feeling that really is how we approach leadership: family in every version that it comes."
“We started with Jill and Doug,” Biden said of the Zoom call over Harris’ VP pick. “We share the same basic values set: It all starts with family.”
Kamala Harris officially becomes the Black woman and first person of Asian descent to join a major party’s presidential ticket. Read the full interview here.
