American Vice President Kamala Harris says she is “ready to serve” her country, in an interview published Monday by the Wall Street Journalat a time when the debate over the age of President Joe Biden is starting again.
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“I am ready to serve my country. There is no doubt about it,” said the 59-year-old Democrat, ensuring that anyone who sees her at work “will draw the conclusion (that she is) fully capable of leading.”
The interview, specifies Wall Street Journalwas made two days before the publication, last Thursday, of devastating comments from an American prosecutor on the memory of Joe Biden, 81 years old.
Robert Hur, special prosecutor charged with investigating a case of classified documents that the American president had in his possession, gave up prosecuting him, arguing, among other things, that a jury would be loath to sentence an “elderly man to the wrong memory”.
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These remarks shook the electoral campaign, nine months before the presidential election in November, which should probably pit Joe Biden against former Republican President Donald Trump, 77 years old.
The polls all underline that the Democrat’s age is his main handicap, among voters who doubt his ability to assume a second term.
The day after the publication of the prosecutor’s report, Kamalas Harris defended the president.
She denounced Friday, in particularly strong terms, the “political motivations” of the magistrate in question, who is Republican, while praising the way in which Joe Biden governs.
The American Constitution provides that the vice president takes the place of the president if the latter dies or finds himself unable to assume his functions.
This does not mean, however, that Kamala Harris would automatically become the candidate of the Democratic Party if Joe Biden, for one reason or another, leaves the race before the election.