Biden shows a desire to be more combative
Front-runner defends record at NAACP convention a week before second set of Democratic debates.
DETROIT — A week before a crucial debate, Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden on Wednesday pushed back at rivals questioning his legacy and signaled that he was prepared to attack their records.
The show of aggression comes after some political observers began questioning Biden’s long-term viability because of an uneven debate performance in June and a lengthy and sometimes controversial political history.
Addressing thousands of African American voters at the NAACP convention here, the former vice president pointed to President Obama’s decision to pick him as his running mate as he attempted to quell criticism of positions he took during the civil rights era.
Obama “did a significant background check on me for months with 10 people,” Biden said. “I doubt he would have picked me if these accusations about my being wrong on civil rights is correct.”
Biden was continuing to respond to an attack launched in last month’s debate by Democratic rival Kamala Harris. The California senator confronted Biden over his opposition to certain forms of busing four decades ago and recent comments about working civilly with segregationist senators with whom he disagreed.
Biden has also been facing fire from New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and others over his spearheading as a senator of a 1994 crime bill that critics today blame for mass incarceration, notably of African American men. Booker, speaking to reporters at the convention, called Biden “an architect of mass incarceration.”
A top Biden aide said Booker’s remarks were “absurd” given that most incarceration happened at the state and local level, out of Biden’s control. “It is Sen. Booker, in fact, who has some hard questions to answer about his role in the criminal justice system,” wrote Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, pointing to zero-tolerance policies and a dysfunctional police department during Booker’s tenure as mayor of Newark.
Booker’s campaign responded by pointing to a line in Bedingfield’s statement: “For decades, Joe Biden has been working on criminal justice reform.” “That’s the problem,” tweeted Booker campaign manager Addisu Demissie.
Biden on Tuesday released a criminal justice plan that would undo some of the provisions of the 1994 bill. His proposal would end the use of private prisons, invest in juvenile justice reform, shift focus from incarceration to prevention and eliminate racial disparities in sentencing.
He also calls for “ending” cash bail and eliminating the federal death penalty and pushing the states to do the same.
Biden has been the Democratic front-runner since entering the race and had mostly floated above the infighting, instead targeting President Trump.
But Biden’s response to Harris in the June debate — and an apparent lack of preparation in answering an obvious attack and palpable discomfort with Harris’ criticism — as well as a narrowing gap in the polls mean he will face new scrutiny in next week’s debate. Twenty Democratic candidates will debate over two nights at the Fox Theater in Detroit. By luck of the draw, Biden, Harris and Booker will share the stage Wednesday night.
Among the candidates at the NAACP event, Biden and Harris received the warmest response, with delegates jumping to their feet and holding up phones to snap pictures. Some said they were not bothered by Biden’s positions from four decades ago.
“I understand Biden made a lot of decisions in the past that would hurt him today,” said George Mintz, a 72-year-old delegate from Bridgeport, Conn. “But I’m looking at where he’s coming from overall, and I think he’s coming from the right place.”
The nation’s oldest civil rights group convened as issues of race are roiling the nation’s politics and as Trump continues attacks on four Democratic congresswomen of color who have criticized him and his policies.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, one of the president’s targets, welcomed delegates on Tuesday — and taunted Trump. “I’m not going nowhere, not until I impeach this president,” she said.