DEMS DEBATE | Harris, Biden have emotional exchange about race

MIAMI (AP)

10:15 p.m.

In an emotional exchange, Sen. Kamala Harris challenged Joe Biden’s stance on busing to desegregate public schools during the 1970s, telling the former vice president that she was bused as a child two decades after the Brown v. Board decision to end the separate but equal policy in the American education system.

Harris told Biden on Thursday that she did not believe he is a racist, but that his recollection of working with segregationist senators a generation ago in discussing partisan gridlock in Washington today was “hurtful.”

Biden said Harris was mischaracterizing his position. Harris asked Biden, “Do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose busing in America?”

Biden said that he did not oppose busing but federal intervention in the issue. Harris shot back: “There are moments in history where states fail to support the civil rights of people.”