Kamala Harris exhorts Asian-Americans to back her and Biden in ‘existential’ election
- Addressing AAPI group in Philadelphia, US vice-president says a Trump victory in November would be a disaster
US Vice-President Kamala Harris called on Asian-Americans at a presidential town hall on Saturday to support her and US President Joe Biden in the upcoming presidential election or risk losing many of the political and social gains the community has fought to secure.
Harris said that returning leadership of the country to former president Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, would be a disaster for Asian-Americans and the broader electorate.
“This is the one, the most existential, consequential and important election of our lifetime,” she said at the Pennsylvania Convention Centre in Philadelphia at an event sponsored by Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote, a non-partisan civic group seeking to bolster AAPI representation and political clout.
“Someone who vilifies immigrants, who promotes xenophobia, who stokes hate and who incites fear, should never again have the chance to stand behind the microphone and never again have the chance to stand behind the seal of the President of the United States of America,” Harris said.
The comments by the nation’s first Asian-American vice-president came at a politically fraught time as Biden, 81, comes under growing pressure to step aside before the November 5 election.
