Indian-origin senator Kamala Harris ends US presidential bid

NEW DELHI, Dec 4, 2019, India Today. Senator Kamala Harris of California said Wednesday she was ending her campaign for president due to a lack of funds. Harris, 55, leaves a crowded field of Democrats hoping to unseat US President Donald Trump, including former Vice-President Joseph R Biden Jr., Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and Pete Buttigieg. She entered the race in January, India Today reported.

“I’m not a billionaire,” Kamala Harris wrote in a Medium post on Wednesday. “I can’t fund my own campaign. And as the campaign has gone on, it’s become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete.”

Kamala Harris is the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica: her Tamil mother, Shyamala Gopalan — whom she once described as a “superhero” — was a cancer researcher.

Harris would have been the first woman, the first Indian-American and second African-American president (after Barack Obama) if she’d been elected.

‘DON’T WORRY, MR. PRESIDENT’

President Donald Trump couldn’t resist poking fun at Kamala Harris a few hours after her announcement, and she gave as good as she got.

“Too bad. We will miss you Kamala!” the President tweeted, to which Kamala Harris replied: “Don’t worry, Mr. President. I’ll see you at your trial.”

President Trump is facing an impeachment inquiry as his four-year term draws to a close; he is accused of withholding military aid to pressure a foreign leader — President Volodymr Zelensky of Ukraine — to investigate Joe Biden, one of the top Democratic contenders.

Impeachment proceedings move from the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the US Congress (the legislature) to the Senate, the upper chamber, where Kamala Harris is a member.

American presidents have been impeached before, but none has been removed by conviction in a Senate trial.