VP Harris to campaign for Newsom in Bay Area next week
OAKLAND, CA - APRIL 05: Vice President Kamala Harris and California Governor Gavin Newsom tour the East Bay Municipal Utility Districts Upper San Leandro Water Treatment Plant on Monday, April 5, 2021 in Oakland, CA. Harris is visiting the treatment
SAN FRANCISCO - Vice President Kamala Harris will visit California's Bay Area next week to campaign for Gov. Gavin Newsom, who faces possible removal from office in a Sept. 14 recall election.
Symone Sanders, Harris' chief spokesperson, tweeted Saturday that the vice president would visit on Wednesday. Sanders later confirmed that the trip is for Newsom's political benefit.
Harris was set to campaign with Newsom in late August on her way back to the U.S. after a week of events and other appearances in Singapore and Vietnam. But she postponed the California stop and returned to Washington after Taliban militants took control of Afghanistan and the U.S. began a chaotic operation to evacuate Americans, U.S. allies and vulnerable Afghans before an Aug. 31 deadline.
US Democratic vice presidential nominee and Senator from California, Kamala Harris and California Governor Gavin Newsom visit the scene of fire-ravaged property from the Creek Fire on September 15, 2020. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Imag
President Joe Biden supports Newsom, a fellow Democrat and first-term governor, and the White said late last month that Biden would travel to California on Newsom's behalf.
"Well, I would say, first, I can confirm the president does still plan to go and campaign for Gov. Newsom in California," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at her Aug. 25 briefing. "I don’t have a date for you at this point in time, but that is still, certainly, his plan."
A Biden trip to California has not been announced. The president has spent the past couple of weeks consumed by developments in Afghanistan, as well as monitoring the federal response to powerful and deadly hurricanes that slammed Gulf Coast and Northeastern states.
Senator Kamala Harris, a Democrat from California, right, shakes hands while arriving with Gavin Newsom, Democratic candidate for governor of California, top left, during a rally in Burbank, California, U.S., on Wednesday, May 30, 2018. The Democrati
Biden surveyed the hurricane aftermath in Louisiana on Friday, and will examine wreckage in New Jersey and New York City on Tuesday. Next weekend, Biden will mark the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with stops in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Californians launched the recall attempt against Newsom mostly because of pandemic-induced anger over his stay-at-home orders, job losses from business closures and shuttered schools.
Newsom is also facing fallout from a multibillion-dollar fraud scandal at the state unemployment agency while weathering a public shaming for not wearing a mask as he dined with friends and lobbyists at an exclusive restaurant last fall although he had been telling residents to stay home for their safety.