Jill Biden opened an old wound with Kamala Harris as the California senator’s name circulates as a possible running mate for Joe Biden.
Harris’s standout moment during the 2020 Democratic primary was her takedown of Joe Biden during last summer’s opening debate in Miami. The political grenade caught the two-term vice president’s campaign off-guard because of her friendship with his son Beau Biden. The pair were the attorneys general of California and Delaware, respectively, at the same time.
Jill Biden, during a breakfast fundraiser in upscale Glencoe, Illinois, recalled her husband’s shock when Harris took him to task for opposing federally mandated busing during the 1960s and the 1970s. Harris was bused to school as a child growing up in Northern California, but she dampened the attack after confusing her own position on the issue.
“Our son, Beau, spoke so highly of her and, you know, and how great she was. And not that she isn’t, I’m not saying that. But it was just like a punch to the gut. It was a little unexpected,” the former second lady said Friday of her late son.
Jill Biden brought up the exchange while discussing vice presidential choices with the fundraiser’s attendees. Harris, along with former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, was name-dropped by donors in the crowd.
“Everyone you mentioned would be a great pick,” the community college professor said.
On Friday, Jill Biden added her husband’s team was planning to work on “engaging the youth vote and coming up with some youth advocacy.” Her comments were in response to a question raised after Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden’s chief rival to become the party’s next standard-bearer, has so far dominated with Democrats younger than 45 this cycle.
Biden himself has floated Harris as a potential vice presidential or Supreme Court choice.
“We lost a really good one, the senator from California,” Biden said after Harris bowed out of contention last December. “She is capable of being president or vice president or on the Supreme Court or attorney general. Her capacity is unlimited.”
Harris, who is yet to endorse, quipped when asked last May about whether she was tired of speculation that she’d make a good No. 2 while she was still in the race.
“I think that Joe Biden would be a great running mate,” she said. “As vice president, he’s proven that he knows how to do the job.”
Since dropping out, she’s polled as a popular choice for the second slot. She’s also leading betting odds to be on the ticket in November.
Biden leads Sanders in the delegate count heading into Tuesday’s round of primaries. The former vice president has 596 to the Vermont senator’s 526. A total of 1,991 delegates are needed to secure the 2020 nomination outright. Illinois Democrats will cast their ballots on March 17.
