Harris secures Democratic presidential nomination

US Vice President Kamala Harris has officially become the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, setting in November's showdown against Republican Donald Trump.

Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison announced on Friday before the online voting process ends on Monday.

Harrison pledged that Democrats “will rally around Vice President Kamala Harris and demonstrate the strength of our party” during their convention in Chicago where Harris will be officially crowned later this month.

Harris, 59, is the first Black and South Asian woman ever to secure a major party's nomination.

She was the sole candidate on the ballot for a five-day electronic vote of nearly 4,000 party convention delegates.

"I am honored to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of the United States," Harris said after securing enough votes by the second day of the marathon virtual vote.

“It’s not going to be easy. But we’re going to get this done,” she added. “As your future president, I know we are up to this fight.”

“Her ‘remarkable rise’ as ‘the sole candidate on the ballot’ - that pretty much tells it all, doesn't it?” asked New York-based journalist Don DeBar.

“She never earned a single delegate or a single vote in a primary this year and was at the bottom of the list of vote-getters the last time she ran,” he told the Press TV website.

“And yet she's now the Democratic Party's nominee, and to challenge that is somehow anti-democratic,”  he added.

Harris has gained full control of the Democratic Party after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid and endorsed Harris as his successor about two weeks ago.

She smashed fundraising records, packed arenas and erased the polling leads Trump had built over the president.

"I couldn't be prouder," Biden posted on X after her nomination.

Dozens of lawmakers from the Democratic Party had urged Biden to pull out of the November race.

Four Democratic senators and more than 30 Democratic representatives had called on Biden to end his re-election campaign amid concerns about his age, mental acuity and re-election prospects.

The panic set in after Biden, nearly 82 years old, performed disastrously at a June 27 debate with Donald Trump.

Trump on Friday vowed to “unleash hell” at his rally Saturday in Atlanta, targeting his new opponent, Harris.

“24 HOURS UNTIL WE UNLEASH HELL,” began Trump’s campaign email sent Friday afternoon. “At this time tomorrow, Crooked Kamala’s worst nightmares come true.”

Biden withdraws from race as Democratic disarray hits historic level

After a disastrous first debate confirmed multiyear questions about his advanced age and cognitive ability, and then weeks of unprecedented calls to quit, President Joe Biden abruptly announced he would not seek reelection.

Trump said he plans to take the stage in “DEEP BLUE Atlanta” and be greeted by thousands of “MAGA Patriots.”

“Tomorrow I step on stage and deliver Open Border Czar Kamala Harris the WORST defeat of her failed political career,” Trump said.

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