Sen. Kamala Harris of California did not have a good night on Wednesday.
Coming off the back of her highly successful first debate performance, the 2020 Democratic presidential primary contender was expected to thrive at her second debate in Detroit. She did not meet expectations.
Instead, Harris was thrown off balance by a newly invigorated Joe Biden. She was challenged over her immigration plan to effectively decriminalize illegal immigrant border crossings. She was challenged over her record as California attorney general. There, Tulsi Gabbard went for the jugular on Harris’ record with regards to drug crimes and sentence length. Somehow Harris escaped criticism over her support for the quite mad Green New Deal.
But not on healthcare.
Repeatedly challenged over her plan’s removal of the right to employer based healthcare coverage, Harris was uncertain. She tried to change the subject, but it didn’t work. And it didn’t work for a simple reason: because Harris knows she cannot pretend her healthcare plan is anything other than what it is: a slightly milder version of Bernie Sanders’ socialist plan.
Yet Harris also struggled in her attacks on Biden. Pushing him on his previous stances relevant to the Hyde Amendment, Biden was calm and robust. Harris’ attack lines fell short. (For the record, she also falsely asserted that there are no rape or incest exceptions to the Hyde Amendment’s prohibition of taxpayer-funded abortion.)
This is Harris’ great challenge: rising in the polls toward the second front-runner status, Harris is now an obvious target for contenders seeking to replace her. What happens next? We’ll find out soon enough.
