KAMALA HARRIS HAS released her first campaign video since Democratic nominee for the US presidency Joe Biden announced her as his running mate for vice-president yesterday.

In the video, Harris criticises President Donald Trump’s decisions during the Covid-19 pandemic and reflects on her mother’s impact on her career choices.

Through a voiceover, Harris says: “Right now, America needs action.”

“In the middle of a pandemic, the president is trying to rip away healthcare,” she says.

“While small businesses close, he’s given breaks to his wealthy donors.”

“And when the people cried out for support, he teargassed them,” Harris says. 

Harris, who ran to be the Democratic nominee for president, was named as Biden’s vice-presidential running mate yesterday evening.

Announcing his running mate, Biden described Harris as a “fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants”.

Trump said he was “surprised” that Biden chose Harris because she was “very disrespectful to Joe Biden” during the Democratic primaries.

He said that Harris did “very poorly” in the race to be the Democratic nominee.

In her first campaign video, Harris says:”I was raised to take action. My mother knew that she was raising two Black daughters who would be treated differently because of how they looked.”

“Growing up, whenever I got upset about something, my mother would look me in the eye and ask: So what are you going to do about it?”

“That’s why when I saw a broken justice system, I became a lawyer to try and fix it,” she says.

“It’s why during the foreclosure crisis I took on the big banks as California’s Attorney General.”

“It’s why as a United States Senator I have fought to represent people like my mother; people who politicians often overlook, or don’t take seriously.”

Harris is a Senator for California and the state’s former attorney general.

She was the second Black woman elected to the US Senate.