Harris makes debut with Biden, slams Trump

"The case against Donald Trump and Mike Pence is open and shut."

Kamala Harris, Joe Biden's vice presidential running mate, made her campaign-trail debut with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee on Wednesday, and came out swinging with attacks on President Donald Trump, saying he mismanaged the country's biggest crisis: the coronavirus pandemic.

"This virus has impacted almost every country but there's a reason it has hit America worse than any other advanced nation. It's because of Trump's failure to take it seriously from the start."

During his introduction of Harris, Biden said he made "the right choice" in selecting the senator from California, and defended his new running mate after Trump attacked her on Tuesday, within minutes of Biden's VP announcement.

"Donald Trump has already started his attacks, calling Kamala 'nasty,' whining about how she is 'mean' to his appointees. It's no surprise because whining is what Donald Trump does best, better than any president in American history."

Later, at a Wednesday briefing at the White House, Trump refreshed his attacks on Harris.

"I watched her. I watched her poll numbers go boom, boom, boom, down to almost nothing. And she left angry. She left mad... She dropped like a rock."

In her remarks, Harris, who is the first Black woman, and the first person of Indian descent, to appear on a major-party U.S. presidential ticket, suggested Trump was not fit to address racial injustice amid nationwide protests over police brutality, and accused Trump of squandering the country's economic expansion.

"Like everything else he inherited, he ran it straight into the ground."

The joint appearance came just days before Biden will formally accept the Democratic presidential nomination at next week's party convention, which will take place largely as a virtual event because of the pandemic.