BIDEN BRUISED IN DEBATE.
Former V.P. on defensive in debate
Miami • Joe Biden’s bid for the White House suffered a setback as he was challenged over his race record by rival Kamala Harris in a debate that electrified the Democratic nomination race.
The former U.S. vice-president, leading in the polls, had recently touted his ability to work with segregationists in Congress to get things done, which African-American Harris, the senator for California, said she found “hurtful”.
Harris also questioned Biden’s historic opposition to busing — the practice of transporting children by bus to different schools to break down segregation.
“There was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day,” Harris said, before adding pointedly: “And that little girl was me.”
It was one of a handful of moments at which Biden was pinned back by opponents.
Biden, 76, was repeatedly told to “pass the torch” of Democratic leadership by Eric Swalwell, a 38-year-old congressman, and criticized for supporting the Iraq invasion in 2003 by Bernie Sanders, the independent democratic socialist U.S. senator.
One spokesman for the Biden camp had to deny that his team was “freaking out” over his performance in the debate after a report emerged quoting a campaign source saying just that.
The clash between Harris, 56, and Biden, 76, who served as Barack Obama’s deputy for eight years, came to encapsulate the question of which generation Democratic activists want leading them into the 2020 election.
Biden’s long political career and his more centrist policy platform were seized upon on Thursday, when 10 Democrat hopefuls took to the stage in Florida. Another 10 candidates had appeared on Wednesday night.
It remains to be seen whether these first debates of the campaign will result in a drop in Biden’s polling lead.