WASHINGTON: Kamala Harris hit the US campaign trail Tuesday after effectively clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, heading to the battleground state of Wisconsin to renew her attacks on Republican candidate Donald Trump. The vice president took just 36 hours to secure enough delegates to be nominated, moving with lightning speed after President Joe Biden’s exit from the race triggered one of the largest election upheavals in modern US history.

Hollywood star George Clooney — one of the first high-profile Democratic activists to urge Biden to drop his reelection bid — on Tuesday joined a series of heavyweights in backing 59-year-old Harris to face Trump in November. On her trip to Milwaukee, Harris is expected to launch another attack on convicted felon Trump as she leans into her past role as a California prosecutor and state attorney general.

“She is prepared to prosecute the case against Donald Trump,” said Wisconsin campaign spokeswoman Brianna Johnson. The theme is set to resonate throughout Harris’s campaign, as she lashed out at Trump in similar terms in a speech to staff on Monday in which she said that, as a prosecutor she knew “Donald Trump’s type”.

Backed with the endorsement of Biden and other key party figures, US media reported that Harris had on Monday sailed past the number of delegates needed – 1,976 out of nearly 4,000. The first female, black and South Asian vice president in US history said in a statement that she was proud and “I look forward to formally accepting the nomination soon.”

Harris should now be able secure the nomination on August 7 – nearly two weeks before the Democratic convention in Chicago. The party plans to hold an online vote of convention delegates. She will also welcome the support of Clooney, a major fundraiser and longtime Biden booster who turned against the 81-year-old due to concerns about his age and mental fitness. “President Biden has shown what true leadership is,” Clooney said in a statement to CNN. “We’re all so excited to do whatever we can to support Vice President Harris.”

Support continued to pour in with the United Steelworkers Union and philanthropist Melinda French Gates, the ex-wife of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, both endorsing her. Her campaign announced it had raised $100 million since her entry into the White House race, with 62 percent of donations coming from first-time donors.

Biden stunned the world by dropping his reelection bid Sunday, bowing to weeks of pressure after a disastrous debate performance against Trump raised concerns about his age and mental acuity. Having made the announcement in a social media post while recovering from COVID at his Delaware beach house, Biden has yet to speak at length about his decision. He said he will give a primetime speech from the Oval Office on Wednesday about “what lies ahead.”

On Monday, in a call to his campaign headquarters, which have now transitioned to supporting Harris, Biden promised to remain “fully engaged”. “I’ve got six months left in my presidency and I’m determined to get as much done as I possibly can, both foreign policy and domestic policy,” he said. He pledged to keep working at “lowering costs for families, continue to speak out on guns and childcare, eldercare, prescription drugs and climate.”

In his call, Biden promised “to keep working for an end to the war in Gaza”. “I’ll be working very closely with the (Zionists) and with the Palestinians to try to work out how we can get the Gaza war to end, and Middle East peace, and get all those hostages home,” Biden said.

Former president Trump — who survived an assassination attempt on July 13 that added to the sense of chaos surrounding the election — has relentlessly slammed both Harris and Biden. Trump late Monday branded her “Lyin’ Kamala Harris” and said she had “terrible” poll numbers against a “fine and brilliant young man named DONALD J. TRUMP! Be careful what you wish for Democrats???”

But recent polls have shown Harris roughly neck and neck with the 78-year-old Trump, whose campaign has been forced into a drastic rethink now that Biden’s departure has made him the oldest nominee in US political history. Harris’ selection of Milwaukee for Tuesday’s rally is no accident — last week, the city played host to the Republican National Convention, where Trump was nominated as the party’s official candidate for president.

With America’s role as a world power under scrutiny amid the political chaos, Biden and Harris will meanwhile also have to deal with a major foreign policy headache this week. They are due to hold separate meetings with Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he visits Washington, with Biden saying he will spend his remaining time in office working to end the war in Gaza. Harris said she would not attend Netanyahu’s address to the US Congress on Wednesday due to a pre-planned rally, but an aide said this “should not be interpreted as a change in her position with regard to (the Zionist entity)”. – Agencies