Kamala Harris makes history as whirlwind week upends US election

Joe Biden’s decision to step aside, a slew of endorsements and a record fundraising haul – vice-president hits the ground running as Democrats’ new standard-bearer

The telephone line was a little fuzzy, and the voice on the end gravelly from several days of Covid isolation. Yet the poignancy of the message, and the moment itself, could not have been clearer: “I’m watching you, kid. I love you,” the speaker said.

Joe Biden’s warmhearted call to his vice-president, Kamala Harris, at the Democratic party’s campaign headquarters in Delaware on Monday marked a generational shift in US politics, a symbolic passing of the torch from parent to progeny.