NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) held a joint press briefing on Tuesday, where they announced their full endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
"We are here today to throw our support behind Vice President Kamala Harris," Schumer said. "We will hopefully grow the Senate majority and under future speaker Hakeem Jeffries we will win back the house... We begin our next chapter and it will be our best yet. Vice President Harris will beat Donald Trump and become the next president of the United States of America."
Pressed by a reporter if he ever asked Biden not to seek reelection at one of their recent meetings, Schumer said: "What I would say is the president has done an amazing, amazing job as president—one of the best we've ever had. And he put his country first and made the right decision."
Harris has already secured the support of enough Democratic delegates to become her party’s nominee against Republican Donald Trump, as top Democrats rallied to her in the aftermath of President Joe Biden’s decision to drop his bid for reelection.
"I’m proud to strongly endorse Kamala Harris to be the 47th president of the United States of America," Jeffries said. "We’re gonna hold the Senate, we’re gonna win the House, we’re gonna elect Kamala Harris as our next president in November."
The quick coalescing behind Harris marked an attempt by the party to put weeks of internecine drama over Biden’s political future behind them and to unify behind the task of defeating Trump with just over 100 days until Election Day. Prominent Democratic elected officials, party leaders and political organizations quickly lined up behind Harris in the day after Biden’s exit from the race and her campaign set a new 24-hour record for presidential donations on Monday.
Several state delegations met late Monday to confirm their support for Harris, including Texas and her home state of California. By Monday night, Harris had the support of well more than the 1,976 delegates she’ll need to win on a first ballot, according to the AP tally. No other candidate was named by a delegate contacted by the AP.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.