Biden blasts Trump for 'abhorrent' birther rhetoric on Harris
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Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take the stage before a 2020 Democratic debate in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., July 31, 2019. /Reuters

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take the stage before a 2020 Democratic debate in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., July 31, 2019. /Reuters

White House hopeful Joe Biden on Friday leveled fierce criticism at President Donald Trump, with his campaign saying the president has resorted to "abhorrent" lies about Democrat Kamala Harris's eligibility to be vice president.

Biden named Harris, a woman of color who was born in the United States and is constitutionally eligible to be both vice president and president, as his running mate on Tuesday. Her selection was also recognition of the vital role Black voters will play in Biden's bid to defeat Trump in the November 3 election.

Harris quickly faced attacks that Democrats deemed racist. Trump, who last month acknowledged Harris would be a "fine choice" for Biden, attacked her following Tuesday's announcement as "nasty" and a radical leftist who would implement "socialized medicine" and confiscate Americans' guns. 

"I heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements," Trump said on Thursday, citing an article by a conservative law professor that questioned the immigration status of Harris's parents at the time of her birth.

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Joe Biden (R) speaks at a campaign event as Kamala Harris listens, August 12, 2020. /Reuters

Joe Biden (R) speaks at a campaign event as Kamala Harris listens, August 12, 2020. /Reuters

Harris, 55, was born in Oakland, California to a mother from India and a father from Jamaica.

Trump is trying to "fuel racism and tear out nation apart," Biden spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement, before referencing the "grotesque, racist birther movement" led by Trump that promoted the lie that Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, was not born in the United States.

"So it's unsurprising, but no less abhorrent, that as Trump makes a fool of himself straining to distract the American people from the horrific toll of his failed coronavirus response that his campaign and their allies would resort to wretched, demonstrably false lies in their pathetic desperation."

The conservative professor's article cited by Trump followed claims shared thousands of times on Facebook that Harris could not become president because her parents hailed from abroad.

Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution states that "no person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States" shall be eligible for the presidency. Section 2 of the 14th Amendment says "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" are U.S. citizens.

Trump grudgingly acknowledged late in his 2016 presidential campaign that Obama was American-born. Since then, the president has faced accusations of racism and has embraced other conspiracies. Polls show him trailing Biden ahead of the November election.

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Kamala Harris speaks at her first joint appearance with Joe Biden, August 12, 2020. /Reuters

Kamala Harris speaks at her first joint appearance with Joe Biden, August 12, 2020. /Reuters

Trump, 74, has frequently sought to sow doubts about Biden's competence due to the former vice president's age, 77.

The president, who has used belittling nicknames to describe his opponents throughout his political career, toyed with a name change on Friday for his Democratic rival.

"What's better, Sleepy Joe or Slow Joe?" Trump asked a crowd in the open area outside the clubhouse at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. "I go back and forth."

Trump has struggled to find a consistent line of attack against Biden, who is well known to Americans after a career in the U.S. Senate and eight years as vice president.

The president is promoting a law-and-order theme in the wake of racial justice protests that erupted after the death in police custody of an African-American man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Trump is to make a campaign stop in Minnesota on Monday, where the topic is likely to come up again.

(With input from Reuters, AFP)