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A Day After Bruising Debate, Biden Pushes Back Against Criticism on Civil Rights A Day After Bruising Debate, Biden Pushes Back Against Criticism on Civil Rights
(about 4 hours later)
CHICAGO — A day after a bruising debate in which Senator Kamala Harris laced into his history on civil rights, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. provided a lengthy and vigorous defense of his record, saying that “30 seconds to 60 seconds on a campaign debate exchange can’t do justice to a lifetime committed to civil rights.” CHICAGO — A day after a bruising primary debate in which Senator Kamala Harris laced into his history on civil rights, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. vigorously defended his record on Friday, saying that “30 seconds to 60 seconds on a campaign debate exchange can’t do justice to a lifetime committed to civil rights.”
At a labor luncheon in Chicago on Friday, Mr. Biden recited a litany of his actions he had taken in his long career to promote civil rights and insisted “I never, never, never ever opposed voluntary busing.’’ Mr. Biden recited a litany of actions he had taken in his long career to promote equality, saying that “I fought my heart out to ensure that civil rights and voting rights, equal rights are enforced everywhere.”
“Folks, the discussion in this race shouldn’t be about the past,’’ he said. “Folks, the discussion in this race shouldn’t be about the past,” he said in an appearance at a labor luncheon headed by a civil rights group.
Mr. Biden was addressing the latest of several major controversies in his two-month-old campaign, setbacks that he has managed to survive while continuing to top the polls at this early stage of the 2020 race. But his first presidential debate performance this cycle was rocky, many Democrats say, and prominent current and former party officials warned Friday that his appearance in Miami revealed “cracks” in his message that he would be the strongest challenger to the president. But his political and personal vulnerabilities as a 2020 candidate have never been more clear than they were on Thursday night, when Ms. Harris scored the most significant blow of the first debate. Turning to face him, she confronted Mr. Biden about his recent references to working relationships in the 1970s with Southern segregationists — words that Ms. Harris, who is black, said she had found hurtful. She also tore into his record of actively opposing busing measures, and put him on the defensive.
“If the contention is, he’s the one to go head-to-head, he’s going to have to kind of re-prove that,” said Sue Dvorsky, the former chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party. “Because last night put some cracks, I think, in that narrative.”
Added former Gov. Jim Hodges of South Carolina: “Where the Biden people need to be deeply concerned is, the aura has worn off. Last night helped show this is a real competitive race.”
[What we know about Mr. Biden’s record on busing.][What we know about Mr. Biden’s record on busing.]
At their Thursday night debate, Ms. Harris confronted Mr. Biden over his fond remembrances last week of what he cast as a more civil time in the Senate, when people of opposing viewpoints could find common ground. Mr. Biden specifically referenced segregationist Southern senators to make his point, words that Ms. Harris, who is black, said she found hurtful. She also tore into his record of actively opposing busing measures in the 1970s. Mr. Biden’s performance on Thursday night, which many Democrats described as surprisingly rusty and uneven for an early front-runner, highlighted the unsettled nature of a race featuring an unwieldy field of two dozen candidates. And it fueled skepticism about the central premise of Mr. Biden’s campaign: that he is his party’s best hope of defeating President Trump.
Mr. Biden found himself again explaining his decades-old record, reminding voters he served with America’s first black president and that he was a longtime champion of civil rights. He repeated that defense Friday. “I did support federal action to address root causes of segregation in our schools and our communities including taking on the banks and redlining and trying to change ways in which neighborhoods were segregated,” he said. “This race is wide open,” said former Gov. Jim Hodges, a South Carolina Democrat. “Where the Biden people need to be deeply concerned is, the aura has worn off. Last night helped show this is a real, competitive race.”
But some Democrats noted Friday that he appeared to be on the defensive during the debate, even cutting himself off abruptly when his speaking time ran out but the moderators had not yet intervened. “There are formidable candidates out there,” he continued, “who demonstrated they can go toe to toe with Donald Trump.”
“There’s a lot of room for improvement,” said State Senator Marlon Kimpson of South Carolina. “And he has to learn from this experience, particularly when he has a strong record on civil rights.” One of them, some Democrats say, was Ms. Harris, the California senator who came away from the debate with a burst of momentum after facing off with Mr. Biden. Yet even as some Democrats began talking her up as a possible future front-runner, she found herself facing growing scrutiny over her position on private health insurance, which was criticized for lack of clarity.
[Read about Ms. Harris’s exchange with Mr. Biden on busing] [The divide over private insurance is one of the deepest fault lines in the Democratic primary.]
Representative Cedric Richmond, a Louisiana Democrat who is Mr. Biden’s national campaign co-chairman, urged Mr. Biden to stay focused on the future. And he emphasized the importance of discussing Mr. Biden’s time as Barack Obama’s vice president rather than re-litigating his earliest days in the Senate. The three other top candidates — Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind. — emerged largely unscathed, and take strong political advantages into the next phase of the race.
“I would not stay talking about 40 years ago and what I meant and what I thought,” said Mr. Richmond, who said he was planning to speak with Mr. Biden today. “And last night it played out in an unfortunate way because he didn’t get a chance to talk about his record.” Mr. Biden, 76, has significant advantages, too. He is expected to post among the biggest fund-raising totals in the field when second quarter numbers are disclosed next month, and he enjoys widespread name recognition and good will among Democratic voters. Though he has spent much of his two-month-old campaign consumed with controversies tied to his decades-long career in government, he has so far maintained high poll numbers.
Instead, Mr. Richmond advised, “I’ve encouraged him to initiate the Janet Jackson test in everything he does, which is, ‘What have you done for me lately?’ And I would focus on what he has done for people lately as opposed to 40 years ago.” “Anything less than a dominant performance by a front-runner is always going to invite additional speculation,” said Fernand Amandi, a Democratic pollster based in Miami. “He has a little bit of a higher standard because of the legitimate concerns he himself acknowledges about his age.”
Privately, a number of Mr. Biden’s allies and associates were taken aback by the intensity of Ms. Harris’s argument, and some quietly acknowledged that the former vice president could have been stronger in response. Mr. Biden has said it is fair to question his age and to judge him on his performance.
But others insisted that his failure to return fire in an equally assertive way signaled his ability to stay above the fray. There is still plenty of time for him to improve his performance onstage — there is another debate scheduled for next month, and more after that — or for other candidates to surge.
“He’s the front-runner and we fully expected attacks to come, but he wasn’t going to engage in a back-and-forth in personal attacks,” said his deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield. “And he didn’t.” The party divisions over how best to take on Mr. Trump were on vivid display at the debates Wednesday and Thursday, as Ms. Warren and Mr. Sanders led the charge for boldly progressive policy prescriptions that their allies hope could animate a Democratic base that was not sufficiently motivated in 2016. The centrists, led by Mr. Biden, advocated for more incremental change and a return to what they cast as pre-Trump-era normalcy.
At a labor luncheon sponsored by Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a civil rights organization based in Chicago, Queen Weiner, 67, frowned when asked about Mr. Biden’s debate performance. Yet Mr. Biden, who has premised his entire candidacy on the idea that he is uniquely qualified to take on a president who is a threat to democracy, now faces pointed questions about his ability to do just that.
“He was not up to par. He was not on his game. He was not with it,” she said, pausing for emphasis after each sentence. “If the contention is, he’s the one to go head-to-head, he’s going to have to kind of re-prove that,” said Sue Dvorsky, the former chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party. “Because last night put some cracks, I think, in that narrative.”
[Sign up for our politics newsletter, and make sense of the people, issues and ideas shaping American politics.] Ms. Harris, meanwhile, emerged as a clear winner from the debates. She spent part of the aftermath in the media “spin room,” where she entered to a cluster of boom mikes and the machine-gun staccato of camera shutters, and on Friday visited a detention center for migrant children in Homestead, Fla.
“I was with him and I’m still with him,” said Ms. Weiner, a retired schoolteacher who had arrived at the labor luncheon to see Mr. Biden speak. “But he’s going to have to start thinking on his feet.” Her campaign said she had raised more money on Thursday than any day since her campaign launch and the day after, though an official declined to disclose specifics.
The question for Ms. Harris is whether she can sustain her momentum from Thursday. Since the start of her campaign, she has performed well when working from a well-crafted plan but has sometimes suffered from self-inflicted wounds when forced to speak extemporaneously. And, as is often the case when one candidate attacks another in a multicandidate field, it remains to be seen if she helped herself or merely wounded Mr. Biden.
At the debate, Mr. Biden was sometimes tentative and meandering. He found himself again explaining his decades-old record, reminding voters he had served with America’s first black president and that he was a longtime champion of civil rights.
He repeated that defense Friday, receiving a polite but not wildly enthusiastic welcome from the group of labor unions in Chicago, as he pushed back against Ms. Harris’s contention that he had opposed school busing.
“I never, never, never ever opposed voluntary busing,” Mr. Biden said at one point.
However, that comment appeared to be misleading; in the 1970s, Mr. Biden led legislative efforts to oppose court-ordered busing, and also spoke out against busing more generally.
At the luncheon, sponsored by Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a civil rights organization based in Chicago, Mr. Biden said, “I heard, and I listened to, and I respect Senator Harris,” before going on to defend his record. Mr. Biden’s team later referenced that phrase about the California senator in a fund-raising solicitation.
He appeared far more confident than he had on the debate stage the night before, and many attendees appeared to be fond of the former vice president.
At least one audience member said that despite Mr. Biden’s inconsistent record on civil rights, she still considered him her favorite candidate, in part because of his association with former President Obama.
“They were like brothers,” said Margena Christian, 51, a lecturer at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “They showed that members of two races could get along.”
But others said they had found Mr. Biden’s debate performance unsettling.
“He was not up to par. He was not on his game. He was not with it,” said Queen Weiner, 67, frowning, and pausing for emphasis after each sentence.
[Sign up for our politics newsletter, and we’ll send you a reminder about our live chat on debate night.]
“I was with him and I’m still with him,” said Ms. Weiner, a retired schoolteacher. “But he’s going to have to start thinking on his feet.”
In an interview, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, founder of Rainbow PUSH, said he had watched the exchange on busing and civil rights between Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris.In an interview, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, founder of Rainbow PUSH, said he had watched the exchange on busing and civil rights between Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris.
“It was a moment for him to admit an error in judgment at that time,” Mr. Jackson said. “He chose not to.”“It was a moment for him to admit an error in judgment at that time,” Mr. Jackson said. “He chose not to.”
Mr. Jackson, who has not endorsed a candidate, said he still believed Mr. Biden was electable — but that there were other candidates who could beat Mr. Trump, including Ms. Harris and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Mr. Jackson, who has not endorsed a candidate, said he still believed Mr. Biden was electable — but that there were other candidates who could beat Mr. Trump, including Ms. Harris and Ms. Warren.
“I hope he’ll make some adjustments,” Mr. Jackson said of Mr. Biden’s campaign.“I hope he’ll make some adjustments,” Mr. Jackson said of Mr. Biden’s campaign.
Carol Morris, 61, an administrator for the state of Illinois, said she disagreed with the perception that Mr. Biden is the most electable Democrat. Privately, a number of Mr. Biden’s allies and associates were taken aback by the intensity of Ms. Harris’s argument, and some acknowledged that the former vice president could have been stronger in response, and perhaps better-prepared on a subject for which he had already taken heat.
“I don’t think he can beat Trump,” she said. “He wasn’t on his ‘A’ game.” Others insisted that his failure to return fire in an equally assertive way signaled his ability to stay above the fray.
Before Thursday’s debate, Ms. Morris had paid little attention to Ms. Harris. Ms. Harris’s performance changed that. “He’s the front-runner and we fully expected attacks to come, but he wasn’t going to engage in a back-and-forth in personal attacks,” his deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, told reporters. “And he didn’t.”
“I was not even looking at her,” Ms. Morris said. “But now I’ve opened my eyes to her. She was so focused, so impressive. And she pinned Biden to the wall.” Representative Cedric Richmond, a Louisiana Democrat who is Mr. Biden’s national campaign co-chairman, urged Mr. Biden to stay focused on the future.
Ms. Harris emerged as the night’s biggest winner, and she spent the aftermath of Thursday’s debate in the media “spin room,’’ where she entered to a cluster of boom mikes and the machine-gun staccato of camera shutters. She did a live interview with Chris Matthews of MSNBC and then spent about 10 or 15 minutes fielding questions. “I would not stay talking about 40 years ago and what I meant and what I thought,” said Mr. Richmond. “And last night it played out in an unfortunate way because he didn’t get a chance to talk about his record.”
She was asked how important it was for her to change the idea of what a president should look like. Instead, Mr. Richmond advised, “I’ve encouraged him to initiate the Janet Jackson test in everything he does, which is, ‘What have you done for me lately?’ And I would focus on what he has done for people lately as opposed to 40 years ago.”
“I’m just being me,’’ she said. “I’m on that stage because I believe that I can add a voice to the discussion. And frankly, I can offer the American people an opportunity to elect a president who has actually got an agenda that’s about focusing on what keeps people up in the middle of the night. That’s why I call it our 3 a.m. agenda. It is about being on that stage, to fight for what we need around decency and having a president who will speak truth to the American people.’’
Ms. Harris’s campaign said she raised more money on Thursday than any day since her campaign launch and the day after, though an official declined to reveal specifics.
Her campaign store pushed sales of T-shirts featuring a photograph of Ms. Harris as a child, referencing her remark in the debate that she was bused to elementary school. An emailed fund-raising solicitation reminded would-be donors of the first memorable line Ms. Harris delivered earlier in the debate:
“America does not want to witness a food fight. They want to know how we’re going to put food on the table.”
Text messages from the Harris campaign flatly declared: “Kamala just got offstage and it’s clear: she won tonight’s debate.”