Obama endorses Kamala Harris as she builds momentum against Donald Trump

WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, in a short video released Friday by the Harris campaign.

The 55-second clip shows the vice president walking backstage at an event, heading toward her motorcade and answering the phone call on speaker.

“Aww, hi, you’re both together! Oh, it’s good to hear you both,” Harris says warmly.

“I can’t have this phone call without saying to my girl Kamala: I am proud of you,” Michelle Obama says. “This is going to be historic.”

The former president then says, “We called to say, Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you, and do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office.”

Harris thanks them for their friendship and adds, “We’re going to have some fun with this.”

The highly anticipated endorsements put to bed any speculation that Harris, the de facto Democratic presidential nominee, might not have the full support of the most popular couple in Democratic politics.

The questions arose from the fact that the Obamas’ endorsement came a few days after the rest of the party’s leading figures had publicly lined up behind Harris, in the wake of President Joe Biden’s July 21 announcement that he would end his reelection campaign.

But NBC News reported this week that Barack Obama has been in regular contact with Harris all week by phone, and has provided counsel on how to build up her own campaign operation essentially overnight, using the staff, money and logistics of what used to be the Biden campaign.

Later this summer and fall, both Obamas are also expected to hit the campaign trail to help excite Democratic voters, many of whom are already enthusiastic about Harris.

And both Barack and Michelle Obama are all but assured to get plum speaking slots at the Democratic party’s upcoming convention in Chicago in August; which will be the party’s first in-person convention since 2016.

The rate at which the Harris campaign has gained momentum in its first five days is practically without precedent in modern politics.

In the first 24 hours after Biden dropped out, her campaign and the Democratic party raised $81 million. A potentially more telling detail is 500,000 of those donors were first time contributors to Harris’ presidential campaign.

Harris also appears to have sewn up Biden’s polling gap with former President Donald Trump, trailing the Republican nominee by only one point in the New York Times’ polling average late Thursday.

The Obama endorsement was notable as well for how the Harris campaign chose to package it. A semi-casual video of a private phone call between old friends bears little resemblance to the traditional format of presidential campaign endorsements.

Typically, they are released as one-sided proclamations written on letterhead or tweeted, with florid praise for the candidate. This was not that.

But while not traditional, the video of the phone call was in keeping with the emerging political character of the Harris campaign, which prioritizes personal relationships, eschews pomp and embraces awkwardness.

The low-key packaging of such a high value endorsement also suggests that the Obamas, both of whom are powerful speakers, may be waiting for the right moment to deploy their oratorial skills for maximum impact.

Harris does not have any public events on Friday. She is expected to campaign in Georgia early next week, a state in which her candidacy may revive Democrats’ electoral prospects.