MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — Tom Steyer took a page out of Kamala Harris’s playbook with a debate stage ambush on Joe Biden over a race issue.
“Three days ago, one of the leaders of Joe Biden’s South Carolina campaign made racist remarks about someone associated with our campaign,” the billionaire businessman said during Friday’s debate before Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primary. “And the legislative black caucus went out en masse to stand up for that man and for our campaign.”
Steyer turned to the former vice president and made his demand.
“Joe, I’m asking you to come with me and the legislative black caucus and disavow Dick Harpootlian and what he had to say. It was wrong. And I’m asking you to join us. Be on the right side.”
The moment echoed the first Democratic presidential debate in June 2019, when the California senator demanded that Biden answer for his past opposition to federally mandated integration busing and for touting his work with segregationist senators in the 1970s.
“There was a little girl in California who was bused to school,” Harris said. “That little girl was me.”
In Friday’s debate, Steyer was referencing a spat between his campaign and Democratic state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, who has endorsed Biden but is not working for the campaign.
Harpootlian sent a tweet Wednesday that said accused the Steyer campaign of giving South Carolina Black Caucus Chairman Jerry Govan “almost $50,000” in a month, calling Steyer “Mr. Money Bags” and asking whether Govan is “pocketing the dough or redistributing the wealth?”
“He told me he was with Joe Biden until Mr. Moneybags showed up,” Harpootlian told the Post and Courier. “This is what happens when billionaires get involved, whether it’s Donald Trump or Tom Steyer. They just buy things. They don’t have to persuade anybody, they just buy them.”
About half of the black caucus held a news conference asking that Biden distance himself from Harpootlian.
On the debate stage, Biden avoided the confrontation.
“I’m asking you to join me and join in the support I have from the overwhelming number of the members of that black caucus,” Biden said.
The moment was briefly derailed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders making points about his own positions on race issues, but Steyer jumped in to get it back on track.
“Joe, I want an answer,” Steyer said. “Really, I think you should come over and disavow the statements that this man made that were openly racist, that were wrong, and the legislative black caucus is against.”
Biden then addressed Steyer’s demand.
“I’ve already spoken to Dick Harpootlian, and he in fact is — was — is, I believe, sorry for what he said,” Biden said.
Harpootlian said earlier in the week that his comments were not racially motivated and that he “will not be silenced by those who use race as a shield from criticism.”
Steyer left the debate stage not satisfied with the former vice president’s response.
“I didn’t fully understand the vice president’s response,” Steyer told reporters after the debate. “But I’m still hoping that he will decide to disavow the comment and the person.”
The attack appeared to be carefully planned. His campaign quickly distributed a press release about “Harpootlian’s Trump-like Racists Tactics” — though it did not go as far as Harris’s campaign, which pushed T-shirts that read, “That little girl was me,” as soon as she made the debate stage comment.
