Joe Biden said that he wasn’t prepared for Kamala Harris to attack him during the first Democratic presidential debate on his opposition to federally mandated busing in the 1970s.
“I was prepared for them to come after me, but I wasn’t prepared for the person coming at me the way she came at me,” Biden said in an interview that aired Friday, adding that Harris knew his late son, Beau Biden. “She knew Beau, she knows me.”
Harris, a senator from California who is of Jamaican and Indian heritage, criticized Biden during first Democratic presidential debate last week for working with segregationist senators in the 1970s to oppose desegregation busing.
“There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day. That little girl was me,” Harris said.
Biden touted an endorsement from Atlanta, Georgia Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, which was announced after the debate. “Since that occurred, I had the most sought-after endorsement,” Biden said.
The former vice president argued that federally mandated busing was unpopular in the African-American community.
“Busing did not work,” Biden said. “You had overwhelming response from the African-American community in my state … They did not support it.”
When pressed as to why Biden did not more rigorously defend himself on the debate stage, Biden quipped, “In 30 seconds?”
“What I didn’t want to do is get in that scrum,” Biden said. “Do you think the American public looked at that debate — take me out of it — and thought, ‘boy, I really — I really like the way that’s being conducted. They’re really showing themselves to do really well.’ Come on, man.”
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