Barack Obama Had Important Words For Kamala Harris At Inauguration
When President Barack Obama was sworn in as president in 2008, he made history as the first African-American president and when Kamala Harris was sworn in as vice president today, she joined him as a history maker with a trifecta: first woman, first African-American and first Asian-American. And at today's inauguration, Obama had kind words for his fellow history maker. As she entered onto the Capitol stage, she and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, stopped for a brief chat and fist bumps with the Obamas and Barack said he was really proud of her.
Twitter is going crazy for over the former president and current vice president's fist bump. One user tweeted a screenshot of the moment and said, "The FIRST Black president and FIRST Black Vice President sharing a fist bump. Yep, I'm framing this." And another thought the image should be captioned, "The fist bump felt round the world." One user saw love and respect, tweeting, "His eyes show how pleased he is for her" and indeed it did seem like they were all smiles beneath the masks.
Barack Obama and Kamala Harris have long supported each other
The words of praise were just the latest in a line of support between Obama and Harris. While Harris is now known around the world, she gained national recognition in part thanks to the invitation from Obama, for Harris to speak at the 2012 Democratic National Convention (via The Guardian). The two supported each other before that with Harris supporting Obama in 2004, when he was running for U.S. Senate and she also supported his 2008 Presidential run over Hillary Clinton, acting as the California co-chair of his campaign (via U.S. News).
Obama backed Harris in her political ambitions as well, including the 2016 California Senate race where he released a statement that read in part, "Kamala Harris fights for us. That's why I'm so proud to endorse her for United States senator. And if you send her to the Senate, she'll be a fearless fighter for the people of California — all the people of California — every single day" (via LA Times).