Democrats in the South
Biden says his comment was wrong; Harris proposes housing help
SUMTER, S.C. — Former Vice President Joe Biden apologized Saturday for recent comments about working with segregationist senators in his early days in the U.S. Senate, saying he understands now that his remarks could have been offensive to some.
“Was I wrong a few weeks ago?” Biden asked a mostly black audience of several hundred during the first day of a weekend visit to South Carolina. “Yes, I was. I regret it, and I’m sorry for any of the pain of misconception that caused anybody.”
Biden’s comments came as he and rival presidential candidate Kamala Harris were set to circle each other while campaigning Sunday in South Carolina, the first Southern state to vote in next year’s primary and a crucial proving ground for candidates seeking support of black Democrats. Biden defended his record on racial issues and reminded voters of his ties to former President Barack Obama, whose popularity in South Carolina remains high.
The former vice president and the California senator probably will be pressed on their tense debate exchange over race and federally mandated school busing. Though the issue is not at the forefront of the 2020 primary, it could resonate in a state with a complicated history with race and segregation.
Without naming Harris, Biden on Saturday referenced what he characterized as expected attacks from other campaigns eager to take him on.
“I’m going to let my record stand for itself and not be distorted or scared,” Biden said. He recalled his support of Obama’s criminal justice reforms and pointed out areas in which he disagreed, such as the three-strikes policy that led to longer sentences for repeat offenders.
“I’m flawed and imperfect like everyone else. I’ve made the best decisions that I could at the moment they had to be made,” Biden said. “If the choice is between doing nothing and acting, I’ve chosen to act.”
Several Harris supporters in the state said her pointed and personal critique of Biden, who opposed busing mandates in the 1970s, struck a chord in South Carolina. Marguerite Willis, a recent Democratic candidate for governor, said that when Harris spoke in last month’s debate about her own experiences being bused as a child, the entire room where Willis was watching the debate grew quiet.
“Growing up here in South Carolina, that’s meaningful to us,” said Willis.
Biden began a scheduled three-stop swing in South Carolina on Saturday, his third campaign visit to the state, with stops in Sumter, Orangeburg and Charleston. Harris, who planned appearances Sunday in Florence, Hartsville and Myrtle Beach during her ninth trip to the state, has spent more time in South Carolina than any other state in the early primary landscape.
The campaign dynamics have shifted and become more personal since the last time Biden and Harris were in South Carolina.
In the debate, Harris was unrelenting in her criticism of Biden, both his views on busing and his comments about working with segregationist senators.
Biden told CNN in an interview that aired Friday that he “wasn’t prepared for the person coming at me the way she came at me,” noting that Harris knows him and his
son, Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015.
Harris, meanwhile, spent Saturday at the Essence Fest in New Orleans, an annual music and cultural conference that is the largest gathering of black women in the country. While there, Harris pledged to fight the segregation that she said lingers today.
“There’s still mandatory busing that exists today,” Harris said. “Because we had so much flight . ... Segregation persists now not necessarily as a function of legislation. ... But just because there has been a drawing out of the resources in public schools. That is one of my highest priorities, and we have got to deal with that.”
Harris wasn’t the only candidate making the rounds of the Essence Fest. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, as well as former Rep. Beto O’rourke also spoke at the event.
Harris used her appearance
to propose $100 billion in federal grants to pay for down payment and closing costs to help close what she says is a racial wealth gap and address historical discrimination in homeownership against black families.
She said the plan would help at least 4 million families living in areas that were redlined, a segregation-era practice that limited black borrowers’ ability to buy homes and set boundaries on where they could live, affecting the wealth of those families for generations.
Warren, meanwhile, called for a $7 billion federal fund to invest in businesses owned by people of color and women, noting — as Booker did, too — that it is far easier for white Americans to start a small business than for black Americans, who receive a tiny fraction of the country’s venture capital.
‘‘We start to close the gap,’’ she said, ‘‘by using the power
that the president herself will have.’’ At the word ‘‘herself,’’ the audience broke into applause.
Booker, too, addressed the racial wealth gap, calling for ‘‘the largest pool of capital for nontraditional entrepreneurs in our country’s history’’ and highlighting his proposal to create savings accounts for every child born in the United States.
In a question-and-answer session after his speech, O’rourke outlined the wideranging education plan that his campaign released Friday.
Among other things, O’rourke is proposing forgiving public school teachers’ student loan debt, providing more funding for historically black colleges and universities, and creating a $500 billion fund for school districts where a majority of students are people of color.