Kamala Harris set to announce vice presidential pick

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to announce her running mate on Tuesday afternoon, ending two weeks of intense speculation in the United States as the country inches closer to the November presidential election.

Ms Harris interviewed several leading candidates in Washington DC over the weekend, including governors Josh Shapiro and Tim Walz and Senator Mark Kelly.

Her selection will send her on a whirlwind five-day, seven-city tour this week as Harris ramps up her campaign in key battleground states.

The latest poll from CBS, the BBC’s US partner, shows Ms Harris and Mr Trump in a tight race nationally, with the vice-president leading the former by one point.

Polls released Sunday show Trump and Harris tied in battleground states, where the former president leads by five points while Joe Biden remains in the race.

Ms Harris is said to have met with her vetting team – led by former US attorney general Eric Holder – over the weekend and received in-depth briefings on their findings, including potential political flaws.

She met with three of those candidates — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro — on Sunday.

She also met with another leading candidate – Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg – on Friday and is believed to have met online with several other candidates, US media reported.

Prior to the decision, Harris’ campaign faced a barrage of lobbying efforts on behalf of or criticizing candidates.

For example, Mr. Shapiro has faced fierce opposition from some progressive groups for his support of a private school tuition assistance program in Pennsylvania — a Republican-backed proposal to send $100 million to families to cover private school tuition and school supplies — as well as his pro-Israel views.

The announcement is expected to come ahead of Harris’ campaign rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

The Philadelphia event will be followed by a series of campaign events in Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona, before concluding with a campaign event in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 10.

Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, have both said that Harris’s choice of running mate will ultimately have no impact on the upcoming election.

In an episode of the “Full Send” podcast released Friday, Mr. Vance said he believes the vice presidential pick “doesn’t really matter, as long as it touches my ego.”

“People will mostly vote for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris. That’s the way it’s going to be,” he said.

Likewise, Trump has largely ignored questions about Ms Harris’s selection, arguing last week that the vice-presidential role “has no impact whatsoever”.

However, on Sunday, Trump criticized Mr Shapiro on Fox News, saying Ms Harris could lose “her little Palestinian base” if she picked him.

Mr Shapiro, who as a student wrote in a school magazine that the Palestinians were “too aggressive”, told reporters on Friday that he now supports a two-state solution.