Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi make history at US President Biden's first address to Congress
Washington: Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have made history as they shared the stage during President Joe Biden's first joint session to Congress, marking the first time that two women sat behind a US president during an address to Congress.
Harris, 56, who is also the first Indian-American and also the first Black woman to become America's Vice President, sat behind on the president's right side as he delivered his first speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night.
Pelosi, 81, who became the first woman in her role in 2007, sat behind on the President's left.
Harris entered the House chamber Wednesday night to a round of applause for Biden's address to Congress.
When asked about the significance of two women sitting behind the President for the address, Harris replied, "Normal," to reporters in the Capitol as she led the Senate delegation to the House chamber.
Asked her view on the historic moment, Pelosi told MSNBC on Wednesday, "It's about time."
"It's pretty exciting. And it's wonderful to make history. It's about time," Pelosi said hours before the speech.
Pelosi already knows what it feels like to sit on the rostrum in the House chamber and introduce a president for speeches. She has sat there for several addresses by Presidents George W Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. In his opening remarks, Biden paid tribute to the historic nature of his vice president, the first woman to serve in that role in American history.
"Thank you all -- Madame Speaker, Madame Vice President," the President said. "From this podium, no president's ever said those words -- and it's about time."
"For the first time in American history, behind the President when he speaks, will be two women: a woman vice president, and a woman speaker of the House. Presidents have been addressing Congress since George Washington did it," White House chief of staff Ron Klain said during a conversation with Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service.
"It wasn't until 14 years ago that the first time one of those seats was filled by a woman. So it took a long time to get to that milestone. Fourteen years later, for the first time, there'll be two women behind the President."
The symbolic seating also connotes the first time that women are first and second in the presidential line of succession, a sign of women in power in their respective roles, CNN said.
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After Hadi, another Bangladesh student leader shot in head
Dhaka (PTI): Unidentified gunmen on Monday shot in the head Motaleb Shikder, a second leader of Bangladesh’s violent student-led 2024 uprising.
The attack took place in southwestern Khulna city, days after the killing of prominent youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi.
"The Khulna Division head of NCP (National Citizen Party) and central coordinator of the party’s workers front, Motaleb Shikder, was shot a few minutes ago," NCP’s joint principal coordinator Mahmuda Mitu said in a Facebook post.
Mitu, a doctor, said Shikder was rushed to Khulna Medical College Hospital in a critical condition.
The Kaler Kantha newspaper, quoting hospital sources, said Shikder was shot on the left side of his head, and he was bleeding profusely when he was brought to the facility, where the doctors started emergency treatment.
The attack came days after Hadi, a prominent leader of the student-led protests last year that led to the ouster of the prime minister Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government, was shot in the head on December 12 by masked gunmen at an election campaign in central Dhaka’s Bijoynagar area.
The 32-year-old Inqilab Mancha spokesperson died while undergoing treatment in Singapore on Thursday. Hadi was a candidate for the scheduled February 12 general elections.
The interim government of Muhammad Yunus staged a nationwide mourning for Hadi’s death on Saturday and said no stone would be left unturned to track down his killers as violence erupted in Dhaka and other major cities afresh over the attack and subsequent death.
Faisal Karim Masud's parents, wife and a female friend of the prime suspect have been arrested by police, but said they were unsure about his current whereabouts.
After Monday’s clandestine attack on Shikder in Khulna city’s Majid Sarani area, police said they were yet at dark about the attack perpetrators or motive but launched an “immediate manhunt” for their arrest.
Local police station chief Animesh Mondal, however, informed reporters that Khulna Medical College Hospital (KMCH) authorities now shifted Shikder to its City Imaging Centre to pinpoint the state of his injury.
