In a joint interview with PEOPLE Magazine, Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, and vice-presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, talked about their partnership.
On Tuesday, during the virtual Democratic National Convention, Biden and Harris officially accepted the party’s nomination.
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“It’s really, really, really important to have someone [like Harris on the ticket] with this intellectual capacity, educational background, backbone, and stature,” Biden says of Harris. “It’s going to change a lot.”
“I was absolutely, and remain, so excited about our partnership,” she tells PEOPLE, “and all the potential of our country that has yet to be achieved.”
The candidates have a shared goal and other commonalities. Harris was friends with Biden’s late son, Beau who died of cancer in 2015. Family is one of the things that they have in common.
“My children don’t call me stepmom, they call me Momala,” Harris said, “We’re a very modern family. Their mom is a close friend of mine. … Joe and I have a similar feeling that really is how we approach leadership: family in every version that it comes.”
Harris told the magazine that the day after Biden offered Harris a spot on his ticket, she and her husband spent time with the former vice-president and his wife, Jill Biden, at their home in Delaware. She said that Biden called Harris’ stepchildren, Ella and Cole, to “welcome them into the family.”
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In naming a woman to his ticket, Biden was clear. “The government should look like the country. There’s a new law of physics in politics: Any country that does not engage more than half their population in sharing the full responsibilities of governance and power is absolutely going to lose.”
Biden said that his relationship with Harris is similar to his relationship with former president, Barack Obama, he said that what he has with Harris is trust.
“This is who we are,” Biden said, “This is America.”
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