As a frontrunner with a double-digit lead in polls over all the others, former Vice-President Joe Biden went into Thursday\u2019s Democratic debate wearing a large bulls-eye on his back. Many of his rivals went for him as expected, but Senator Kamala Harris scored the night\u2019s most dramatic hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI do not believe you are a racist,\u201d Harris started, looking at Biden, past Bernie Sanders who stood between them, but \u201cit was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations on the segregation of race and you worked with them to oppose busing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harris, whose father is black and mother Indian, went on to say she was among those who was bused, the practice of transporting students to schools outside their residential districts to end racial segregation in the 1970s and 80s. \u201cThere was a little girl in California, who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that little girl was me.\u201d Her campaign tweeted a picture of her from that time shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden had recently said, in an effort to portray himself as a unifier who can work with political rivals to get things done, that as a US senator he had even worked with those two senators to get things done. He has been under fire from his rivals since, one of whom had demanded he should apologize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden was prepared. He said that was a \u201cmischaracterization\u201d of his position on busing. And added, \u201c\u201cIf we want to have this campaign litigated on who supports civil rights and whether I did or not, I\u2019m happy to say that I was a public defender, I didn\u2019t become a prosecutor.\u201d Harris has been attacked in her party for her record as a prosecutor in California, first as a district attorney and then as the state\u2019s attorney general. She might have expected that and just looked away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Will the exchange hurt Biden? He is very popular with African American Democrats, a constituency he has nursed for decades. His stint as President Barack Obama\u2019s deputy has further enforced his hold. Harris is vying for the same constituency, as an African American.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden, who is 76, was also asked by another of his debate stage rivals, Congressman Eric Swalwell to step aside and let the next generation of Democrats take charge now, as he had himself said many years ago, making a case for himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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