Biden, Harris Arrive in Atlanta to Meet Asian-American Leaders After Shootings

For Asian Americans, 2020 was a year of political success and newfound influence. But it was also a time of vulnerability to racist assaults. That painful dichotomy will be on display Friday when President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the first person of South Asian descent to hold national office, visit Atlanta just days after a white gunman killed eight people, most of them Asian American women, in three metro-area massage businesses. The killings come after a spike of anti-Asian violence nationally. The presidential trip was planned before the shooting, as part of a victory lap aimed at selling the benefits of pandemic relief legislation. But Biden and Harris will instead spend their visit consoling a community whose growing voting power helped secure their victory in Georgia and beyond. Biden and Harris departed Washington on Friday morning for Atlanta, but not before the president expressed support for the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, a bill that would strengthen the government’s reporting