Joe Biden’s praise for segregationists followed him to the Democratic presidential debate on Thursday evening and exploded into a racial controversy that could put a huge dent in his candidacy after Kamala Harris lectured him on busing.
Harris, who is Jamaican-American, inserted herself into a discussion on the thorny topic, saying, ‘As the only black person on this stage, I would like to speak, on the issue of race.’
She said it was ‘hurtful’ that Biden had praised two notorious, Democratic segregationists who he served with in the Senate in the 1970s.
One, James Eastland, from Mississippi, called African-Americans ‘flesh eaters’; the other, Herman Talmadge, ran for the Senate on a pledge to stop blacks and whites eating together in the Capitol itself.
Biden revealed at a private fundraising event that Eastland ‘didn’t call me boy,’ and said of their time in the Senate: ‘At least there was some civility.’
Harris confronted Biden about the remarks and his stance in the ’70s against busing encourage racial integration in schools – he worked with the two segregationists to try to prevent federal imposition of the policy.