Kamala Harris scripts history with Vice-President nomination

Washington: Senator Kamala Harris has accepted the Democratic Party's nomination to be the vice-president of the United States, scripting history by becoming the first Indian-American and also the first Black woman to be on a major political party's national ticket.

Harris, 55, was nominated as the vice-presidential candidate on Wednesday at the virtual Democratic National Convention. "I accept your nomination for vice president of the United States of America," she said. In her acceptance speech, Harris paid tribute to the Black women that came before her and she vowed to fight for the nation. "Let's fight with conviction. Let's fight with hope. Let's fight with confidence in ourselves, and a commitment to each other," she said.

She profoundly remembered her mother from Tamil Nadu. Harris said she was there standing on her mother's shoulders, a woman who "came here from India at age 19 to pursue her dream of curing cancer. At the University of California, Berkeley, she met my father, Donald Harris — who had come from Jamaica to study economics."

She assailed US President Donald Trump's "failure of leadership". She said the Republican leader "turns our tragedies into political weapons". "Donald Trump's failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods," Harris said.