Joe Biden says he wasn't prepared for Kamala Harris' debate attack on busing. 'I was prepared for them to come after me, but I wasn't prepared for the person coming at me the way she came out. She knew Beau. She knows me.'
It was a heated moment during the presidential debate last week that has continued to be at the center of two presidential hopefuls' talking points on the campaign trail, and in a new interview, former Vice President Joe Biden said he took Sen. Kamala Harris' shot at his past opposition to busing personally.
"It's so easy to go back and go back 30, 40, 50 years and take a context and take it completely out of context," Biden said. He added,"Busing did not work. You had overwhelming response from the African American community in my state -- my state is the eighth largest black population in the country, as a percent of population -- they did not support it."
Shortly after that part of interview was aired, Harris' communications director Lily Adams also went on CNN, saying she didn't think it was a personal attack and that presidential debates should include active discussions on candidates' past actions as well as visions for the future. On Wednesday, Harris, who just a few days ago said"there's no question that the federal government has a role and a responsibility to step up," implied a watered down position on busing that is closer to that of Biden's, saying that busing students should not be a federal mandate, but should be a “tool” in the “toolbox” of school districts looking to desegregate their populations.
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