Former Kamala Harris aide asks Joe Biden to make her ‘first woman president’ of the US

Jamal Simmons said it would make it easier for the next woman president does not have to “hold all that weight of being the first”.

A former staffer of US vice-president Kamala Harris requested President Joe Biden to resign and make his deputy the head of state during the transitional phase to next administration under Donald Trump.

Vice President Kamala Harris delivers a concession speech after the 2024 presidential election on the campus of Howard University in Washington. (File image)(AP)

“Joe Biden’s been a phenomenal president, he’s lived up to so many of the promises he’s made. There’s one promise left that he could fulfil, being a transitional figure. He could resign the presidency in the next 30 days, make Kamala Harris President of the United States,” said Jamal Simmons, former communications director for Kamala Harris, in an interview to CNN.

Simmons also said this would absolve Harris from overseeing the transition of power on January 6 out of her own defeat in the recent presidential elections on November 5.

“And it would make sure, it would dominate the news, at a point where Democrats have to learn drama and transparency and doing things the public wants to see. This is the moment for us to change the entire perspective of how Democrats operate,” Simmons suggested.

The former staffer also said this could be a great chance for Biden to fulfil his last promise to make Harris the first woman president of the world's richest country. “It would disrupt all of Donald Trump‘s paraphernalia, right? He‘d have to rebrand everything. And make it easier for the next woman president does not have to hold all that weight of being the first,” Simmons added.

Kamala Harris on defeat

Harris lost the US presidential election to republican candidate, former President Donald Trump by a margin of 86 electoral college votes. She secured 48% of the popular vote but lost key swing states, which overwhelmingly voted in favour of Trump. The new president elect secured 312 electoral votes and also secured 50.4% of the popular vote.

Reflecting on her defeat, Harris expressed her “gratitude” to voters and vowed to “never give up the fight”. In our nation, we owe loyalty not to a president or party, but to the Constitution of the United States, and to our conscience and our God. My allegiance to all three is why I am here to say, while I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fuelled this campaign: The fight for freedom, for opportunity, and for fairness and the dignity of all people,” Harris wrote in a post on X.

(With PTI inputs)