Out of all the Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Kamala Harris was arguably one of the toughest critics of former Vice President Joe Biden.
On the campaign trail she called out his comments about working with segregationist senators and slammed him during one of the debates about his stand on busing minority students to better school districts.
Of course, she prefaced her comments by noting that she doesn’t believe he’s a racist, but there was the infamous “but” afterwards.
“I do not believe you are a racist,” Harris told Biden. “And I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground, but I also believe — and it is personal, and it was actually very hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputation and career on the segregation of race in this country. And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing.”
She went on to explain why his position was personal to her.
"You know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day," she continued. "And that little girl was me."
Asked by ABC’s Robin Roberts how she went from her attitude toward Biden during the primary to her current praise of him, Harris dismissed it as a “distraction.”
"I want Joe Biden to be the next president of the United States. I believe in Joe Biden, I believe in his perspective, and frankly I think that that conversation is a distraction from what we need to accomplish right now and what we need to do," the senator said.
Asked to reconcile her current praise of Joe Biden with her criticism of his decades-old positions on school busing during Democratic debate, Kamala Harris tells @RobinRoberts the “conversation is a distraction from what we need to accomplish right now.” https://t.co/yu7oX1iehu
— ABC News (@ABC) August 24, 2020