Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to travel in and out of Los Angeles for campaign stops in Las Vegas, Utah and Southern California on Friday, a day after a key presidential debate.
Harris, who has been in Los Angeles all week, is scheduled to fly from Los Angeles International Airport to Las Vegas on Friday morning, hours after President Biden’s shaky performance in the Georgia debate against former President Trump. Harris will speak at a campaign event in Las Vegas at noon, then fly to Utah and attend another campaign event in Park City, Utah, on Friday afternoon.
Harris, a former U.S. senator and California attorney general, is scheduled to return to Los Angeles on Friday night for another campaign stop. Details of her visit there were not immediately released.
Harris has a home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. She arrived in Los Angeles on Monday for a political event in the San Gabriel Valley’s Bradbury neighborhood on Wednesday.
Harris acknowledged after Thursday night’s debate that the 81-year-old Biden “started off slow,” appearing to stumble and lose his train of thought at times, but insisted he finished strong.
“It’s been a slow start. That’s obvious to everyone. I’m not going to debate that,” Harris said in an interview with CNN after the debate. “We’re talking about a choice in November. We’re talking about one of the most important elections of our lifetimes.”
California voters shared their thoughts and feelings after watching the presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Macy Jenkins reports on NBC4 News at 11pm Thursday, June 27, 2024.
She acknowledged that Biden’s performance has been inconsistent but said voters need to judge him on his performance in office, not just on one debate.
“Joe Biden, who I work with every day, is someone who, as I said, brings Republicans and Democrats into the Oval Office and seeks compromise in a way that’s uncommon today,” she told CNN.
Harris will campaign for Biden on Friday in the shadow of the influential debate that marked a turning point in the campaign. NBC4 political commentator Fernando Guerra said Biden will likely come under pressure to drop out of the presidential race in the coming weeks.
“It was the worst performance in the history of a presidential debate. It doesn’t get any better than this,” said NBC4 political commentator Fernando Guerra of Loyola Marymount University. “This is going to be the most important event of the entire campaign. It was awful. There’s no denying it.”
After the debate, some Democratic strategists, public officials and opinion leaders publicly called for Biden to withdraw, but party rules make it difficult to replace a candidate after the nomination process without the candidate’s consent, and Biden has already comfortably secured the number of delegates needed to secure the party’s nomination.
“What options does he have? He has the support of all the delegates, so if he wants to be the nominee, there’s nothing stopping him from being the nominee,” Guerra said. “Given the situation we’re in, it’s up to him to decide.”
There is no mechanism in place to choose a replacement if a candidate withdraws from the race, and Biden has previously vowed not to make such a decision.
In 1968, then-President Lyndon Johnson withdrew from the presidential race, but it was a different situation. Johnson withdrew after the New Hampshire primary, but it became clear he faced a major challenge in renomination and other obstacles in a nation at war with Vietnam. He declined to seek reelection and served out the remainder of his term.
Trump and Biden have both agreed to hold a second debate in September.
Biden spoke at a campaign rally in North Carolina on Friday.
“Folks, I can’t walk as easily as I used to. I can’t talk as smoothly as I used to. I can’t debate as well as I used to,” Biden said. “But I know what I know. I know how to tell the truth.”