Thursday on MSNBC’s post-Democratic presidential candidates’ debate coverage, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) said she was disappointed by former Vice President Joe Biden answers to her questions on his busing votes in the 1970s.
Matthews asked, “Watching the former vice president do you feel he had an adequate answer to you emotionally, intellectually historically to what you were raising tonight?”
Harris said, “I would like to hear him acknowledge what was wrong about a perspective on busing. That was a perspective that I believe he had at that time. You know, listen, we were all, busing was part of what was necessary to integrate the schools of America. And then to fall back on, well, what’s the state’s responsibility versus the federal government, that leaves the need to really address the fact that it was just wrong. And it dispenses with also the relevance of the federal government to step in on civil rights issues where states have failed, which is why we had the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.”
Matthews said, “You thought he was hedging.”
Harris said, “Well, we have a different perspective on it.”
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