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Biden's deputy. What is known about Kamala Harris and her position on Ukraine

Biden's deputy. What is known about Kamala Harris and her position on Ukraine US Vice President Kamala Harris (Getty Images)

Four years ago, Kamala Harris became the first woman in history to serve as Vice President of the United States. Now Western media are reporting that she may be nominated as a presidential candidate from the Democratic Party if Joe Biden withdraws from the election.

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Daughter of immigrants. Biography facts

Kamala Devi Harris was born in Oakland, California on October 20, 1964. Her family of scientists immigrated to the United States from India and Jamaica.

Kamala's parents divorced when she was seven years old. At 12, she moved to Canada with her mother and sister.

Later, she returned to the United States to pursue her education. She received a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Political Science from Howard University in Washington, D.C. (considered a traditionally African-American university).

Then she studied at the University of California, Berkeley, where she gained a Master's degree in Law.

Work in the prosecutor's office

Since 1990, Kamala Harris has worked at the Alameda County District Attorney's Office in Oakland. She handled cases related to sexual offenses.

She then held a position in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office. She specialized in combating teenage prostitution. She made sure that law enforcement agencies treated underage prostitutes as victims of crime and sent them to rehabilitation centers instead of jail.

In 2003, Harris won the election for the San Francisco District Attorney position. During her tenure, the overall crime conviction rate rose from 52% to 67%, the highest in a decade. The sentencing rates for murder and drug trafficking also increased greatly.

Kamala Harris created a special hate crime task force to investigate hate crimes, including crimes against LGBT teenagers in schools.

Biden's deputy. What is known about Kamala Harris and her position on Ukraine

Photo: Kamala Harris served as California's attorney general (Getty Images)

In 2010, Kamala Harris was elected Attorney General of California. She became the first female, Jamaican-American, and Indian-American attorney general in California.

In this position, she initiated an online platform that collected information about people who had died or been injured as a result of police detention.

Harris also got the federal government to increase subsidies for families who lost their homes due to the dishonesty of lending institutions.

At the same time, she refused to support two bills to ban the death penalty in the state, causing outrage among human rights activists.

Harris's career path in politics

Along with her work at the attorney general's office, Kamala Harris developed a political career. In 2016, she won the race for the seat of senator from the state of California.

She actively appeared on TV and spoke out against President Donald Trump's tough policy toward migrants at the time. She opposed Trump's nominees for the positions of Secretary of Education and Attorney General of the United States and supported the right to abortion and the legalization of same-sex marriage. She also advocated for the legalization of cannabis at the federal level.

She was a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Intelligence, Ways and Means, and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committees.

In 2019, Kamala Harris announced her participation in the presidential race. For some time, she was among the leaders of the Democratic Party primaries, but in the end, she was unable to maintain this popularity, withdrew from the election, and supported Joe Biden's candidacy.

During the election campaign, Biden nominated Harris for vice president, making her the second in command in the White House.

Biden's deputy. What is known about Kamala Harris and her position on Ukraine

Photo: Kamala Harris and Joe Biden at the inauguration (Getty Images)

On January 20, 2021, at the inauguration of Joe Biden as President of the United States, Kamala Harris also took the oath of office and assumed the position of Vice President of the United States.

Being in the second most important position in the United States, she became not only the first woman but also the first representative of the non-white population of America to hold this post.

A presidential candidate instead of Biden?

The US presidential campaign is now starting again. Although the official nomination of candidates from the Democratic and Republican parties has not yet taken place, the main contenders for the post of the country's leader are Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

After the first debate between the potential candidates, rumors appeared about Biden's possible withdrawal from the election. After all, according to the American media and experts, they were unsuccessful for the current president.

Kamala Harris is said to be one of the possible candidates from the Democratic Party. According to Reuters sources, the vice president has the highest recognition among all alternative candidates and the highest rating among Democrats who could be seriously considered as candidates for the post of the new US leader.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on July 9, Kamala Harris is only one percent behind Donald Trump (42% to 43%), which is a difference within the poll's margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

The media interlocutors also note that she has already been vetted at the national level, particularly by Republicans. But some influential Democrats still have little faith that she can defeat Trump.

Biden's deputy. What is known about Kamala Harris and her position on Ukraine

Photo: Kamala Harris may become a candidate for the US presidency instead of Joe Biden (x.com/KamalaHarris)

However, Joe Biden insists that he has no plans to leave the campaign. When asked at the NATO summit why he does not pass the baton to the younger generation, he replied that the "seriousness of the situation" requires experience.

But the US leader expressed confidence that Kamala Harris is worthy of leading the White House in the future.

"I wouldn’t have picked Vice President to be vice president did I think she was not qualified to be president," Biden said.

What Kamala Harris says about Ukraine

The US Vice President spoke in support of Ukraine during the 2020 election campaign. Back then, Kamala Harris condemned Russian aggression and the occupation of Crimea.

"Russia's illegal occupation of Crimea is a flagrant violation of international norms that have guided the world since World War II, as is Russia's support for military operations in eastern Ukraine and cyberattacks," she said.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2024, Harris said that people in Ukraine were not only defending their families and homes but also fighting for freedom.

"The eyes of the world are on the brave people of Ukraine. They're fighting not just to defend their homes and families, but to defend their democracy, freedom, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. And we stand with them," the politician wrote on X.

Harris has been critical of the US Congress delaying military aid to Ukraine: "When we talk about America's role in supporting Ukraine, we have to be steadfast and we can't afford to play political games. There is no room for them now."

The vice president said that the failure of the US to help Ukraine would be a "gift to Putin."

"History proves that when we do not react when an aggressor invades its neighbor with impunity, it will continue to move on. And in Putin's case, this means that the whole of Europe will be under threat," she explained at the Munich Security Conference in February 2024.

Biden's deputy. What is known about Kamala Harris and her position on Ukraine

Photo: Kamala Harris and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting at the Peace Summit (president.gov.ua)

Kamala Harris represented the United States at the Peace Summit in Switzerland in June this year. During her speech, the Vice President expressed her opinion on the Kremlin's conditions for "ending the war."

She stated that Russia's actions, if left unchallenged, "other aggressors will undoubtably become emboldened. It leads to the potential of a war of conquest and chaos, not order and stability, which threatens all nations."

"But we must speak truth: He (Putin - ed.) is not calling for negotiations, he is calling for surrender. America stands with Ukraine," Harris said.

Sources: Reuters, The New York Times, ABC News, the White House website, Kamala Harris's X account, Wikipedia.