No One More Qualified Than Kamala Harris For Presidential Race: White House

White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean Pierre emphasised that no one is more qualified to step in as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee than US Vice President Kamala Harris.

Jean-Pierre on Wednesday (local time) noted that Kamala Harris has been vice president for more than four years now.

"The vice president (Kamala Harris) has been vice president for more than four years. I do not see anyone more qualified to step in at this moment. She was a senator. She was an attorney general...," she said while addressing the White House briefing.

Jean-Pierre noted that Kamala Harris was a partner in that to the president, adding that President Joe Biden is proud to make this decision.

"I've listed out what we've been able to accomplish in the last three and a half, almost four years, an unprecedented record. She was a partner in that with the president. This is a decision that this president made, and I think he (US President Joe Biden) is proud to have made that decision...," she added.

Harris, over the past 3.5 years as vice president, has visited more than 19 countries and met with more than 150 foreign leaders, according to the White House website.

She has visited over 19 countries and met with more than 150 foreign leaders, according to information available on the White House website.

The US presidential election will take place on November 5, and Biden was seeking re-election to the post as the Democratic Party nominee. After his June 27 debate with Republican candidate Donald Trump, Democrats put pressure on him to withdraw from the race.

Following this, on July 21, Biden formally announced that he was abandoning plans for a second term in office and endorsed his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris for the election.

Meanwhile, Harris has quickly consolidated support among Democrats and has already secured the backing of enough delegates to be the likely Democratic nominee. Democrats adopted the rules the party will use to choose their presidential nominee, with voting to officially nominate Harris likely to begin on August 1.

Harris will have to secure the support of the majority of delegates at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago in August.

Under the rules approved by the Democratic National Convention's rules panel Wednesday, presidential hopefuls have until Saturday evening to formally declare their candidatures and until Tuesday, July 30, to submit signatures from at least 300 delegates, with not more than 50 from a single state counting towards the threshold, reported CNN.

Voting will be conducted by electronic ballots sent to convention delegates. If only one candidate meets the petition requirements, which is likely considering how quickly the party has coalesced around Harris, voting is expected to begin on August 1, although it will be up to party leaders to set the times for voting to begin and end.

If more than one candidate were to meet the requirements, party leaders can set a period of no more than five days for candidates to make their case to delegates, reported CNN.

The party has said its goal is to nominate its presidential and vice presidential candidates by August 7 to avoid the possibility of litigation over ballot access in Ohio.

While the state has pushed its deadline for political parties to submit their official nominees to September 1, the new law won't take effect until the end of August.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)