Trump surprised Biden picked Kamala Harris as running mate

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he was surprised Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden chose Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate because she had been disrespectful to the former vice president during the debates.

Trump said Harris had been "very, very nasty" to Biden during the primaries. "One of the reasons that it surprised me, she was probably nastier than even Pocahontas to Joe Biden. She was very disrespectful to Joe Biden and it's hard to pick somebody that that's disrespectful," he told reporters.

Harris, a 55-year-old US senator from California made history as the first Black woman and Asian-American on a major presidential ticket.

Her selection came as little surprise. With the United States in the midst of a reckoning over its history of racial injustice, Biden had increasingly been pressed to select a woman of colour. Harris, who became the Senate's second Black woman in its history when she was elected in 2016, was always at the top of the list.

But Harris did anything but keep a low profile while Biden was making up his mind. Instead, she emerged as a fierce advocate for police reform and social justice - in the Senate, in the streets, and on the airwaves, sparring with Republicans on the Senate floor and offering fiery critiques of Republican President Donald Trump.

"She has been very resolute," said Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, the longstanding civil rights and social justice advocacy group, which has worked with Harris on reform issues. "She has the ability to go toe-to-toe with anybody."