Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said Vice President Harris' campaign will invoke her legal career to position the race against former President Trump as the "prosecutor against the felon."
Brinkley made the comment on CBS moments after President Biden announced he would not seek re-election in November and endorsed Harris as the Democratic nominee.
"People will remember that Biden at the very end here, did the right thing getting out… it is a grueling campaign trail. It's just grueling. There was no way President Joe Biden could do seven speeches a day," Brinkley said. "This was not going to be staying in the White House or Camp David or Rehoboth. You can’t do a lockdown… you can't run like that. In the end, you did need somebody with more vigor and energy and Vice President Harris has shown that.
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"Not just here at home, but she has been to 21 countries abroad and yet she is not known by a lot of Americans so there will be a new excitement of this notion of the prosecutor going against the felon," he continued. "That is how the Harris-Biden team are going to position her and then on CBS News, you will be showing a lot of the clips of Senator Harris when she went after Kavanaugh and then after the bar on women's reproductive rights…it is the forte of Kamala Harris.…"
Harris has previously faced intense criticism for her record as a prosecutor and as attorney general of California during her 2020 presidential bid. She will be running to defeat former President Trump, who was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records earlier this year in a trial he dismissed as a "scam."
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Biden dropped the bombshell news in an open letter to the American people on Sunday, marking the latest extraordinary development of the 2024 election cycle. After weeks of insisting he would not drop out despite panicking liberals predicting a loss to Trump in the aftermath of his disastrous debate performance, he succumbed. He is the first sitting president eligible for another term to not seek re-election since Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968.
Harris confirmed that she would run for the Democratic nomination, writing in a statement, "I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination."
Harris has received endorsements from former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as several Democratic lawmakers. However, many Democrats - including former President Obama, have issued statements on Biden's decision without making mention of Harris or endorsing her.
Democratic strategists noted to Fox News Digital that the vice president is in the best position to take on former President Trump with just months to the election. Several Democratic operatives pointed to the fact that Harris was voted for by the same primary voters that chose Biden, and she has already established a campaign and fundraising infrastructure going into the crucial contest.
Fox News' David Rutz and Julia Johnson contributed to this report.
