Washington : US President Joe Biden on Thursday said his deputy, Vice-President Kamala Harris, is “qualified” to lead the country.

At a high-stake press conference here on Thursday, Biden said, “From the very beginning, I made no bones about that. She is qualified to be the president. That’s why I picked her.” When asked about the reasons for this, he said “Firstly, because of the way she’s handled the issue of freedom of women’s bodies, to have control of their bodies and secondly, her ability to handle almost any issue on the board.” “This was a hell of a prosecutor. She was a first-rate person and in the Senate, she was really good. I wouldn’t have picked her unless I thought she was qualified to be the President,” Biden said.

Harris, 59, was the first black South Asian American woman to be elected as US Vice-President in 2020.

Biden’s remarks on Harris came amidst growing calls for the 81-year-old to step aside from the race for the White House in November since he stumbled through a TV debate with his Republican rival Donald Trump last month.

The President mistakenly referred to Kamala Harris as former president Trump during the press conference. He said, “I wouldn’t have picked Trump to be the vice-president, did I think she was not qualified to be president….”

“The fact is that the consideration is that I think I’m the most qualified person to run for President. I beat him once and I will beat him again,” Biden said.

“The idea that Senators and Congressmen are running for office worrying about the ticket is not unusual. And I might add, there were at least five presidents running or incumbent presidents who had lower numbers than I have now later in a campaign,” he said.

So, there’s a long way to go in this campaign and so I’m just going to keep moving, Biden, the presumptive candidate of the Democratic Party, said.