It was a powerful moment.
Biden is just lying. He has been singing the praises of Jessie Helms (R-Racist Segregationist) his whole career.
Biden can get his mo back by naming Beto his running mate.
I don’t really care about Biden–how did Bernie do?
It sounded to me like Biden justified his position on busing in relation to state’s rights which is very problematic if he gets pushed further on it, which can be pretty much guaranteed Harris will do.
I can’t see any way to grant Biden any points on that exchange. He defended his position as “state’s rights” and simultaneously promised to not take on injustices in the country because states should do it. Harris hit a triple in her first part then knocked it out of the park when it came back to her.
There was much shouting.
Watching Joe post debate — he’s not helping himself. He at first refused to look at Garrett Haake. Then Biden’s aide tried to body block Haake. Not a good look for Joe.
God, his attempted rebuke at Harris was weak. He should have been ready for that
I’m frankly surprised Biden didn’t have a better answer ready on the busing issue.
And I’m dismayed by the answer he did offer, which was basically “because states’ rights.”
I mean seriously, WFT?
I understand he’s currently holding a big lead in the polls among African-Americans. And maybe this won’t change that.
But, wow – invoking “states’ rights” as his excuse for actively taking the side of anti-integrationists on the busing issue? Talk about choosing a weird hill to die on in 2020.
And together with Harris’s strong showing overall tonight and Biden’s, well, lackluster-at-best performance (even apart from the segregationist / civility - busing / state’s rights clusterfuck), I won’t be at all surprised if Harris gains a few points in the polls at Biden’s expense.
My other big worry with Biden – that he might actually believe his own bullshit…
It was extremely powerful…especially because of where I was.
I’ve been working to organize a largely African American community in my county. We held debate watch parties at a local community center there.
The community center was the last segregated public high school in the entire country.
So yeah…it was an extremely intense moment for the room.
I think Biden is toast. He will stay in a defensive crouch for rest of the primary, and that’s just not a winning posture. Especially in this environment.
It won’t be quick, he’ll be around for awhile…but the path was set tonight.
It won’t appear that way, however. Biden IS going to start losing support, and its not going to be about this only issue. But Biden is Biden,and he will continue to say/do things that will keep him defensive.And A) people don’t want that for our nominee and B) they are going to get tired of constantly defending him.
Likewise, Harris is going to gain support, not because she attacked Biden, but because she is coming across as a fighter…and an effective one. I am quite confident, that is what most Democratic voters in the primary are looking for, at the end of the day.
So it won’t be a sudden move from Biden to Harris. He will gradually lose numbers (probably faster than she gains numbers), and she will gradually gain numbers. Never for anything as specific as tonight, but precisely because of the dynamics we saw tonight. If that makes sense.
I’ve felt that there has been a shift this month in the race and it seems to be accelerating. Warren has a real shot to be tied for #1 pretty soon. I also think Harris has been better than her numbers and it showed tonight. Most everything she said tonight are things she says every day on the trail, apart from the attacks on Biden. But even there, it’s not like she didn’t say exactly this response on the segregationist stuff when the controversy first arose. I would expect that as Harris takes more POC & college educated females from Biden that she’ll get into the mid-high teens while Warren moves into a statistical tie with Biden, making this a 4 person race w/Bernie.
Breitbart and Drudge are certainly thrilled with Senator Harris.
Biden is not the one who is lying.
And speaking of race, how many black people has Ms Harris locked up? And how many as Biden defended?
“There are moments in history where states fail to preserve the civil rights of all people,” Harris said.
That’s great. The “state rights” excuse is indefensible if the candidates also want to protect reproductive rights, healthcare, etc. Btw, the “state rights” argument is inherently flawed imho, cuz there’re cities, districts and so on below the state level. If the federal government shouldn’t interfere with state business, why should state governments be allowed to tell communities what to do?