*In an exclusive interview with CNN that’s airing Friday, former Vice President Joe Biden admits he wasn’t prepared for California Sen. Kamala Harris to confront him on issues of race at the first Democratic primary debate.
Harris criticized Biden for his opposition to mandatory school busing when he was a senator in the ’70s. Biden told CNN’s Chris Cuomo that he didn’t expect to be called out on issues of race, given his record on civil rights.
“I was prepared for them to come after me, but I wasn’t prepared for the person coming at me the way she came at me,” Biden said, adding that he knew Harris well and she knew his late son, Beau Biden, too.
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CNN Exclusive: Former Vice President Joe Biden says he wasn’t prepared for Sen. Kamala Harris to confront him on issues of race the way she did at the first debate https://t.co/Dzc6f99yFC
— CNN (@CNN) July 5, 2019
He also defended his record, saying he supported voluntary and court ordered school busing but opposed busing when it was mandated by “unelected” officials.
“Busing did not work,” Biden said to Cuomo. “You had overwhelming response from the African American community in my state…they did not support it.”
The debate between Harris and Biden over busing centered on “how do you equalize education in every area.” With that, Biden says he wants to triple funding for the most disadvantaged schools and have preschool available from age 3, the report states.
“Every child out there is capable, but they’re living in circumstances that make it difficult,” Biden said. “So what are we doing? We’re sitting around here as if it’s an insoluble problem.”
During the two-night debate, Harris, a former prosecutor, also confronted Biden over his ability to work with segregationist senators. In the CNN interview, Biden said his record was “taken out of context” during the June 27 debate.
He also acknowledged the current polls which show Democratic voters want to get behind candidates who have the ability to beat Donald Trump in 2020. Biden told Cuomo that Trump is “the bully that I’ve always stood up too.”
“He’s the bully that used to make fun when I was a kid that I stutter, and I’d smack him in the mouth.”
He added that while parts of last week’s Democratic debate left him frustrated, most especially because the focus was on decades-old policy, he intends to hold off on going after his opponents’ previous positions on certain issues.
“I get all this information about other people’s past and what they’ve done and not done. And, you know, I am just not going to go there,” Biden said. “If we keep doing that, that’s, I mean, we should be debating what we do from here.”
He told CNN that “our positions aren’t any different, as we’re finding out.”
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