Kamala Harris on Friday described for the first time US President Joe Biden's phone call informing her he was planning to quit the race to the White House. Speaking to CNN, Ms Harris, who has replaced Mr Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate, said she was at home making pancakes and bacon for her nieces when her phone rang.
"My family was staying with us, and including my baby nieces, and we had just had pancakes," she recalled in an interview with CNN about the Sunday afternoon call in July.
Ms Harris and the children were chatting -- "Auntie, can I have more bacon?' 'Yes, I'll make you more bacon'" -- she said.
"And the phone rang, and it was Joe Biden," she added.
"It was Joe Biden, and he told me what he had decided to do. And I asked him, 'Are you sure?' And he said, 'Yes'."
"My first thought was not about me, to be honest with you. My first thought was about him," Ms Harris said in her first one-on-one interview with a major news network since Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign last month and endorsed her.
Mr Biden, 81, ended his second-term bid on July 21 after his disastrous June 27 debate performance against his Republican rival Donald Trump triggered a slow-burning Democrat revolt against him.
"He (Biden) has the intelligence, the commitment, and the judgment and disposition that I think the American people rightly deserve in their president," Ms Harris said in her joint CNN sit-down with her running mate Tim Walz.
She also said she is running for president because she believes that she is the "best person to do this job at this moment for all Americans, regardless of race and gender."
The US Vice President also said that Americans were ready to "turn the page" on divisions she blamed on her rival Donald Trump.
"Sadly in the last decade, we have had in the former president someone who has really been pushing an agenda and an environment that is about diminishing the character and the strength of who we are as Americans, really dividing our nation," the Democrat said.
"And I think people are ready to turn the page on that," she added.
