'Not playing around Whirlwind week for vice-president, both on and off the stage

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.

- Richard Luscombe

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.

In terms of the 2024 presidential election race it was also a defining moment. Harris, a former prosecutor, state attorney general, California senator and, for three and a half years, Biden's White House understudy, was appearing for the first time as her party's preferred new candidate.

It came less than 24 hours after her 81-year-old boss's stunning announcement that he would not seek a second term of office sent a seismic shock across the country.

There followed what by any metric could be called a whirlwind week on the campaign trail in an extraordinary month in US history already notable for the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump, who is the Republican party's candidate for the 5 November election.

By Wednesday, Harris was addressing a historically black sorority in Indianapolis as the Democratic presumptive nominee, having secured the support of enough delegates at the party's national convention in Chicago next month to clinch the nomination.

It was the same day as Biden gave an emotional, nationally televised address from the White House explaining his decision to step aside "in defence of democracy".

"I revere this office, but I love my country more," he said, urging the country to stand behind Harris.

One by one, other heavyweight Democratic figures stepped up to endorse her, culminating yesterday with the backing of former president Barack Obama.

Approval came from the former speaker Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, all 23 of the party's state governors and elected officials from the most junior Congress members to Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, respectively the House minority leader and Senate majority leader.