Washington: Kamala Harris was on Wednesday sworn in as America’s first woman Vice President during a historic inauguration at the West Front of the Capitol.
Harris, 56, the 49th US Vice President, will serve as the deputy of President Joe Biden, 78, who also took the oath of office, becoming the 46th US President.
Harris took over the office of the US Vice President from 61-year-old Mike Pence. Biden succeeded President Donald Trump, 74.
In her first tweet as Vice President from her official Twitter handle, she said: “Ready to serve.”
Harris, the daughter of an Indian immigrant from Chennai, scripted history by becoming the first-ever woman Vice President of the United States. She is also the first female, first Black and first South Asian American vice president.
Her husband Douglas Emhoff, 56, is the first ‘Second Gentleman’ – the first male spouse of a vice president in the US.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina member of the Supreme Court, administered the oath of office to Harris, the daughter of an Indian mother and African-American father from Jamaica.
She was born in Oakland, California, in 1964, to parents who raised her in a bassinet of civil rights activism.
Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris from Chennai, was a breast cancer researcher who died of cancer in 2009. Harris’ father, Donald, is a Jamaican American professor of economics.
The ceremony was attended by former presidents Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton. Former first ladies Michelle Obama, Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton are also set to attend the event.
