Candidates gang up on Biden

Front-runner, taken to task at S. Carolina event, gets last word

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Joe Biden’s leading rivals for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination sought on Saturday to undercut the former vice president’s argument that he’s the ideal Democrat to oust President Donald Trump.

They did it without mentioning the 76-year-old front-runner at all. Biden, in turn, didn’t mention them either.

California Sen. Kamala Harris charged straight at Trump as she addressed hundreds of activists at the South Carolina Democratic Party Convention.

“We need somebody on our stage when it comes for that general election who knows how to recognize a rap sheet when they see it and prosecute the case,” Harris said, playing off her experience as a state and local prosecutor as she shredded Trump on a litany of policy fronts.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders pushed back at a centrist Democratic group, “Third

Way,” and some of its members’ assertions that his democratic socialism is an “existential threat” to the party’s 2020 hopes.

Sanders countered that his left-flank agenda can win the White House.

“We defeat Trump by running a campaign of energy and enthusiasm that substantially grows voter turnout … in a way we have never seen,” he said.

Biden had the luxury of the last word Saturday, using his draw as the last of 20 candidates at the rostrum to deliver a rapid-fire litany of policy proposals, including a new pitch for an $8,000 tax credit for child care services.

The former vice president avoided mention of his recent spat with New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who’d called for the former vice president to apologize after recalling how he had to work with virulent segregationists when he was first elected to the Senate in 1972. Booker took particular exception to Biden noting that Mississippi Sen. James Eastland had never called him “boy,” only “son.”

In an interview with MSNBC after his speech Saturday, Biden did not apologize, saying his remarks had been twisted.

“I do understand the consequence of the word ‘boy,’ but it wasn’t said in any of that context at all,” he said.

Kamala Harris