Kamala Harris took on Trump and Biden in an assertive Democratic debate performance
The debate stage might have been the best setting for California Sen. Kamala Harris’ introduction to a prime-time national television audience during the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president.
The former prosecutor, known for her hard lines of questioning during confirmation hearings for President Donald Trump’s appointees, displayed a penchant for wrapping snappy one-liners with policy explanations and personalizing discussions on healthcare and race relations.
Harris, like other candidates, blasted Trump on several fronts that included immigration and foreign policy. In a moment when candidates were loudly talking over each other, she played Debate Mom.
“Hey, guys, you know what? America does not want to witness a food fight, they want to know how we are going to put food on their table,” she said.
The zinger was one of several that drew cheers from the audience, the biggest of which came after she dominated a segment on policing and race relations while cornering former Vice President Joe Biden.
Harris, the only black candidate onstage who is of Jamaican and East Indian descent, grilled Biden over his recent comments on the “civility” he maintained with segregationist Democrats decades ago. She called his comments “hurtful.”
She chided Biden and blasted his record on busing. Biden defended his position on opposing busing as mandated by the U.S. Department of Education and said it was the local municipal government’s decision to delay integration in the schools in her native Berkeley, California.
”So that’s where the federal government must step in,” Harris responded. “That’s why we have the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. That’s why we need to pass the Equality Act. That’s why we need to pass the ERA, because there are moments in history where states fail to preserve the civil rights of all people.”
The 54-year-old also asserted her stances on other issues.
She pledged to reinstate immigration policies that would defer deportation and allow undocumented immigrants to become eligible for a work permit. She said she would abolish private health insurance and embrace universal government-sponsored healthcare, including for undocumented immigrants.
Harris said she would push Congress to reform gun laws in 100 days, and if that didn’t happen, she’d strengthen background checks and ban the sale of semiautomatic weapons. She also pledged tax cuts for America’s middle class.
Even as Harris delivered a strong debate performance, she appeared to have side-stepped part of her own record as California attorney general.
“As attorney general of California, I was very proud to put in place a requirement that all my special agents would wear body cameras and keep those cameras on,” she said.
According to the Sacramento Bee, in 2015 she said she didn’t believe there should be statewide standards regulating the use of body-worn cameras by police officers.
This story was originally published June 28, 2019 at 1:02 AM.