Harris goes after Biden on race in U.S. presidential debate

[rooster59]

Harris goes after Biden on race in U.S. presidential debate

By James Oliphant and Ginger Gibson

 

Senator Kamala Harris speaks during the second night of the first Democratic presidential candidates debate in Miami, Florida, U.S. June 27, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Segar

 

MIAMI (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris confronted front-runner Joe Biden on race during a debate on Thursday, calling his remarks about working with segregationist senators "hurtful" and questioning his 1970s opposition to school busing.

 

In a Democratic contest where racial issues have figured prominently, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, also faced pointed questions about accusations of racism within the city's predominantly white police force in the aftermath of a fatal police shooting of a black man.

 

Harris, the daughter of a black father from Jamaica and an Indian mother, was at the center of several heated exchanges during the second night of debates among Democrats vying for the right to challenge Republican President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election.

 

Harris said the issue of race was deeply personal for her, noting she was bused to school as classes were integrated in California.

 

She looked straight at Biden and challenged him to explain himself.

 

"I do not believe you are a racist. And I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground," said Harris, 54, a U.S. senator from California.

 

"But I also believe - and it's personal and it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country."

 

Biden, who has faced heavy criticism for his recent comments saying he worked with segregationists decades ago to get things done in the U.S. Senate, defended his record on civil rights.

 

"It's a mischaracterization of my position across the board: I did not praise racists. That is not true," he said. "If we want to have this campaign litigated on who supports civil rights and whether I did or not, I'm happy to do that."

 

"Everything I have done in my career, I ran because of civil rights and continue to think we have to make fundamental changes and those civil rights, by the way, include not just African-Americans, but the LGBT community," he said.

 

GOING AFTER TRUMP

 

During the debate, the contenders frequently attacked Trump and sharply disagreed over the best way to boost access to healthcare insurance coverage.

 

One of the lesser-known candidates, U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell, 38, also trained his sights on Biden, urging the 76-year-old to pass the torch to younger candidates.

 

"I was 6 years old when a presidential candidate came to the California Democratic convention and said it’s time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans," Swalwell said. "That candidate was then-Senator Joe Biden."

 

"He was right when he said that 32 years ago. He is still right today,” Swalwell said.

 

Biden responded: "I'm still holding onto that torch. I want to make it clear."

 

Biden and the candidate running second in polls among Democrats, Bernie Sanders, turned their fire on Trump repeatedly.

 

"The American people understand that Trump is a phony, that Trump is a pathological liar and a racist and that he lied to the American people during his campaign," said Sanders.

 

Biden, the former vice president making his third run for the White House, said Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy and other economic policies were increasing economic inequality in the United States.

 

'HORRIBLE SITUATION'

 

"Donald Trump has put us in a horrible situation. We do have enormous income inequality," Biden said. "The one thing I agree on is we can make massive cuts in the $1.6 trillion in tax loopholes out there, and I would be going about eliminating Donald Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy."

 

The debate also included U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and Kirsten Gillibrand, former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, self-help guru Marianne Williamson and entrepreneur Andrew Yang. All six are polling nationally around 1% or less.

 

Like the Democrats who debated on Wednesday, the contenders disagreed on the best way to expand healthcare coverage. Asked who would back a plan that eliminated private insurance, only Sanders and Harris raised their hands.

 

The Democrats frequently talked over one another, shouting to get their points across as some of the lesser-known contenders tried to get noticed.

 

"Americans don't want to witness a food fight. They want to know how we're going to put food on their table," Harris said at one point.

 

Sanders defended his big-spending plans for a Medicare-for-All healthcare plan, saying it would reduce premiums for many but that some in the middle class might pay more.

 

"People who have health care under Medicare for all will have no premiums, no deductibles, no copayments, no out-of-pocket expenses. Yes, they will pay more in taxes, but less in healthcare for what they get," Sanders said.

 

Buttigieg, who as been grappling with turmoil from the aftermath of the police shooting in South Bend earlier this month, acknowledged that his police force lacked diversity because he "couldn’t get it done."

 

Buttigieg said the situation around the shooting was a "mess" because the officer did not have his body camera on.

 

(Reporting by James Oliphant and Ginger Gibson; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu; Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-06-28

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[keith101]

Why did she feel the need to bring up things that happened over 4 decades ago she should only be focusing on the now and future I always thought she was better than this crap from the past , get with the program girlie geez . 

If I was an American I would have voted for her but no way now .

[champers]

So two old white men are the leading contenders to replace two old white men. Riveting stuff.

[riclag]

1 minute ago, champers said:

So two old white men are the leading contenders to replace two old white men. Riveting stuff.

Thats age discrimination! It amazes me how people vote on appearance instead of a experienced politician! Why would skin color matter

[Chomper Higgot]

1 minute ago, riclag said:

Thats age discrimination! It amazes me how people vote on appearance instead of a experienced politician! Why would skin color matter

Perhaps it's a recognition that the seismic changes the world has gone through in the past decade warrants a candidate that is representative of the people who will live with these changes through the next 4 of 5 decades.

 

 

[riclag]

3 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Perhaps it's a recognition that the seismic changes the world has gone through in the past decade warrants a candidate that is representative of the people who will live with these changes through the next 4 of 5 decades.

 

 

I should of known that's why skin color matters

[thaibeachlovers]

4 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Perhaps it's a recognition that the seismic changes the world has gone through in the past decade warrants a candidate that is representative of the people who will live with these changes through the next 4 of 5 decades.

 

 

Well, let's see the young candidate that can get the votes. It's that simple. If they can get enough votes they win, if they can't, they don't. Nothing complicated about it.

What won't win though, is complaining about racism, when no serious person, IMO, would claim that Biden is a racist.

I'm guessing, but she's got nothing else to make people take notice of her, though I doubt it's enough for her to gain sufficient votes.

Two old white men- is that the best the Dems can do? They need a new Jack Kennedy, but if there is one, he's hiding.

[Chomper Higgot]

7 minutes ago, riclag said:

I should of known that's why skin color matters

Oddly it is you that are banging on about skin color.

 

I never mentioned it. 

[Chomper Higgot]

4 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Well, let's see the young candidate that can get the votes. It's that simple. If they can get enough votes they win, if they can't, they don't. Nothing complicated about it.

What won't win though, is complaining about racism, when no serious person, IMO, would claim that Biden is a racist.

I'm guessing, but she's got nothing else to make people take notice of her, though I doubt it's enough for her to gain sufficient votes.

Two old white men- is that the best the Dems can do? They need a new Jack Kennedy, but if there is one, he's hiding.

You don't yet know who the Democrat candidates for President and Vice President will be, but you are already loading your arguments with assumptions. 

 

 

[lannarebirth]

Harris got some positive spin from the "talking heads" after her performance but it looked like showboating to me and certainly not someone likely to heal any national divide.

 

Buttigieg was impressive to my mind and I hadn't seen much of him prior to tonights debate. I don't think there's any pathway to the presidency as a midsize town mayor, but I can see him as a vice president candidate since he's from a battleground state.

 

Bernie was Bernie and he didn't go too far off his regular talking points, which is a good thing.

 

Biden's losing it and the sooner they move on from him the better.

 

One irony is that Yang, who was on the international debating team did not join the fray in any way, probably because it's not really a debate and his discipline is to follow the rules, which of course go out the window from the first question of the spectacle. 

 

Anyhow,,  Bernie and Buttigieg looked like the ony two IMO that looked like they have the stuff to bridge the divide in the country and that's really what needs to happen over and above any specific issue.

Edited June 28, 2019 by lannarebirth

[thaibeachlovers]

2 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

You don't yet know who the Democrat candidates for President and Vice President will be, but you are already loading your arguments with assumptions. 

 

 

LOL. If there is a new Jack  Kennedy intending to enter the race, he's being vert tardy. I'm pickin' that the ones that will be contending have already shown up. Not a J Kennedy among them.

[thaibeachlovers]

3 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

Anyhow,,  Bernie and Buttigieg looked like the ony two IMO that looked like they have the stuff to bridge the divide in the country and that's really what needs to happen over and above any specific issue.

I'd be the first to hope that that were possible, but IMO America is so divided that nothing can bridge the gap between the coast dwellers and the middle of the continent. I just can't see a middle America farmer accepting that there are 30 or something genders, which seems of some importance to the liberals of the coastlands.

Seems to me that the lifestyles of the big coastal cities are not acceptable to the church going, gun loving citizens of much of the rest of the country.

[Berkshire]

42 minutes ago, keith101 said:

Why did she feel the need to bring up things that happened over 4 decades ago she should only be focusing on the now and future I always thought she was better than this crap from the past , get with the program girlie geez . 

If I was an American I would have voted for her but no way now .

President Obama warned about this....the "circular firing squad."  Every time the Dems attack one another, Trump is loving it. 

[Chomper Higgot]

6 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

LOL. If there is a new Jack  Kennedy intending to enter the race, he's being vert tardy. I'm pickin' that the ones that will be contending have already shown up. Not a J Kennedy among them.

I doubt the Democrats could field any candidate that you'd vote for.

 

The election will be won on winning the middle  ground and swing voters, not on capturing the dwindling number of 'come whatever' Trump supporters 

 

[lannarebirth]

1 minute ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I'd be the first to hope that that were possible, but IMO America is so divided that nothing can bridge the gap between the coast dwellers and the middle of the continent. I just can't see a middle America farmer accepting that there are 30 or something genders, which seems of some importance to the liberals of the coastlands.

Seems to me that the lifestyles of the big coastal cities are not acceptable to the church going, gun loving citizens of much of the rest of the country.

Democrats just say all that stuff to pander to their voting block.  It has nothing to with running the country, same as abortion.  I'm not sure why they need to talk about it so much as there's barely an iota's difference in any of the candidate's policy positions as far as that stuff goes. 

[thaibeachlovers]

4 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

I doubt the Democrats could field any candidate that you'd vote for.

 

The election will be won on winning the middle  ground and swing voters, not on capturing the dwindling number of 'come whatever' Trump supporters 

 

LOL, you must have missed all the posts I've made that say I'd have voted for Bernie.

I'd vote for any Dem candidate that vowed to hobble Wall Street and put bankers responsible for the 2007 debacle in jail.

 

The last election wasn't, IMO, won by Trump supporters but by anti Clinton sentiment. IMO voters chose Trump as the only alternative to HRC. The Dems should have gone with Bernie.

Edited June 28, 2019 by thaibeachlovers

[Chomper Higgot]

2 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

The last election wasn't, IMO, won by Trump supporters but by anti Clinton sentiment. IMO voters chose Trump as the only alternative to HRC. The Dems should have gone with Bernie.

Well that and meddling by Russia. 

 

But you digress..

 

This  is not the run up to 2016.

[Sujo]

Harris did not call or label Biden as racist. I do think she owned the show though.

[lannarebirth]

6 minutes ago, Sujo said:

Harris did not call or label Biden as racist. I do think she owned the show though.

She called him a racist by prefacing her accusatory showboating with "I don't think you're a racist". That's how the game is played.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 28, 2019 by lannarebirth

[losworld]

Biden will crumble like a cookie in any serious debate as the guy is a career politician bullshit artist who should be selling used cars in some back alley lot.

[sqwakvfr]

I went to elementary school in San Francisco in the early 1970’s.  I was bused from my neighborhood school to a predominantly African American school in South San Francisco.  I hated it.  The bus ride was long and if one got sick the parents had to come a long distance to pick up their kid.  I learned absolutely nothing from being bused as a part of the San Francisco’s forced Desegregation Program.  Therefore, Sen Harris you are not the only one who was a forced participant of busing in 1970’s San Francisco.  On this issue I agree with Biden(I rarely agree with him) it should be a local matter and not federal matter.  

[quandow]

57 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

Democrats just say all that stuff to pander to their voting block.  It has nothing to with running the country, same as abortion.  I'm not sure why they need to talk about it so much as there's barely an iota's difference in any of the candidate's policy positions as far as that stuff goes. 

You are correct in all candidates NOT named Bernie. He has a voting record that will back up his stump speeches. Biden is a VERY weak, VERY flawed candidate and the liberal media is doing what they can to prop him up. Trouble is, it's on a sandy foundation and will never stand up to Trump should we have the misfortune of having Biden as the final candidate. And Kamala is nothing but Hillary 2.0. She's been taking PAC money for YEARS to build up a war chest, then started making noise about NOT taking PAC money after the cupboard was full. I fear we're gonna have a 2016 repeat.

[quandow]

1 hour ago, keith101 said:

Why did she feel the need to bring up things that happened over 4 decades ago?

That's one of Biden's greatest flaws, it's a current hot topic after the Biden/Sharpton interview where Reverend Al took Uncle Joe to the woodshed over it, and her being a woman of color delivers a double whammy to Biden's groin. As stated previously in this thread, Biden doesn't stand a CHANCE in a debate against Trump. I hate Trump as much as anyone possibly can, but have to give credit where credit is due. Trump is a scrapper, a dirty fighter, and will eat Joe's lunch if it comes down to that. God help us all - 2016 repeat, here we come.

[Sujo]

1 hour ago, riclag said:

Thats age discrimination! It amazes me how people vote on appearance instead of a experienced politician! Why would skin color matter

You talk of experienced politician yet defend Trump at every oportunity.

 

Im certain you dont support him on looks. So by your oen reckoning of experience I trust you voted for Hilary.

[Jingthing]

I think this helped Harris more than it hurt Biden. It's no surprise that Harris is a top tier candidate. This is still way, way early. Don't come to any conclusions yet. 

Edited June 28, 2019 by Jingthing

[champers]

2 hours ago, riclag said:

Thats age discrimination! It amazes me how people vote on appearance instead of a experienced politician! Why would skin color matter

I just thought that the Democrats were supposedly progressive and inclusive. It looks like the old guard want to cling to power and personal aspiration outweighs the common good.

[thaibeachlovers]

2 hours ago, champers said:

I just thought that the Democrats were supposedly progressive and inclusive. It looks like the old guard want to cling to power and personal aspiration outweighs the common good.

Pelosi epitomises that.

[Scott]

Off-topic posts and replies removed.  

 

[Credo]

7 hours ago, quandow said:

You are correct in all candidates NOT named Bernie. He has a voting record that will back up his stump speeches. Biden is a VERY weak, VERY flawed candidate and the liberal media is doing what they can to prop him up. Trouble is, it's on a sandy foundation and will never stand up to Trump should we have the misfortune of having Biden as the final candidate. And Kamala is nothing but Hillary 2.0. She's been taking PAC money for YEARS to build up a war chest, then started making noise about NOT taking PAC money after the cupboard was full. I fear we're gonna have a 2016 repeat.

I'd love to see Kamala on stage with Trump.   She's a former prosecutor and she is laser focused on her target.   She also knows how not to get rattled.   I have a feeling when she starts zinging Trump he will head off to McDonald's because he will have lost his appetite for Indian food.

 

Bernie and Warren are simply different shades of the same policies -- no problem with their policies, although I think they are both a little too far to the left for a lot of people.   

 

I like Buttigeig, but I don't know that he is ever going to get the mass appeal necessary to be a contender.   He is clear in his thoughts and as a Mayor he has actually had to implement policies, not just pass a law and tell everyone else to do the heavy lifting.   Unfortunately that plays both ways and right now it's not in his favor.   

 

Biden, unfortunately IMO, is still out front, but I really, really think it's time for the younger generation to take over.   

 

[Jingthing]

I wouldn't be surprised if 45 refuses to debate if the nominee is Harris.

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