Former Vice President Joe Biden early in his campaign said he would play nice with his nearly two dozen 2020 Democratic primary rivals. His surrogates, though, are showing no such reluctance.
Rather than ignoring competitors’ criticisms and smothering them with smiles as Biden, 76, says he’s seeking to do, the longtime Delaware senator’s supporters are taking jabs at his fast-rising opponent, California Sen. Kamala Harris.
During a recent CNN interview, Democratic Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond suggested Harris’ debate behavior last Thursday bordered on rudeness — including the viral moment in which she challenged the Biden over his 1970s-era opposition to school busing and nostalgia for legislative partnerships with notorious segregationist lawmakers.
“So, I think the vice president heard Senator Harris. And I think that when you saw his silence, I think that one thing about him that really attracted me to his leadership is that he listens and feels it,” Richmond said. “And last night, he listened to Senator Harris. And then, when it was his turn to talk, I think part of it was the make sure that people understood his record.”
Tensions between the Biden and Harris camps are only likely to increase.
Harris is in a statistical deadlock with front-runner Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to a new national survey. The Quinnipiac poll shows the California Democrat at 20% support, with the former vice president holding on to the lead with 22% support.
The feud began on the evening of June 27, the second night of debates sponsored by the Democratic National Committee and aired on MSNBC, which included 20 candidates. Without prompting, Harris used her time answering an unrelated question to hit Biden.
“You also worked with [those segregationist senators] to oppose busing. And 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. And that little girl was me,” Harris said with a dramatic pause. “So I will tell you that on this subject, it cannot be an intellectual debate among Democrats. We have to take it seriously. We have to act swiftly.”
Biden responded by claiming he never opposed such programs in the abstract, but rather federally ordered busing.
Democratic strategist Jeff Hewitt said Biden can’t continue to hide behind surrogates willing to challenge and even go after rivals like Harris, particularly when she is willing to throw rhetorical punches herself.
“He’s go to man up and attack Harris himself,” Hewitt said. “These surrogates aren’t running for president.”
Sensing that some of Harris’ attacks are beginning to stick, Biden allies like Rutgers University political science professor Ross Baker contend Biden should be absolved of criticism over his work with segregationist, Southern senators. After all, that’s who ran key committees and controlled the legislative agenda, said Baker who has worked in Senate offices over the decades through various fellowships. (His daughter, Sarah Baker, once served as policy director for Dr. Jill Biden.)
“I feel that I owe a debt to history and to remind people of what politics was like when Biden was in the Senate,” Baker told the Washington Examiner. “It was important for younger senators [like Biden] to get your footing and show something for your first six months in office.”
Other Biden surrogates have used a similar defense as Baker. Former Obama administration official Anita Dunn said Biden’s 2020 rivals who serve in the Senate routinely work with Republican senators on bipartisan legislation. She cites the likes of New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and his one-time Senate colleague, Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who became President Trump’s first attorney general. Same with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s legislative overtures to one of the Senate’s most senior Republicans, Chuck Grassley of Iowa.
Booker “has worked with Jeff Sessions on many things,” Dunn said. “And Elizabeth Warren tells a story about how she worked with Chuck Grassley for over-the-counter hearing aids to save money for people.”
