Not Even Kamala Harris Knows Where She Stands on Busing Anymore
Sen. Kamala Harris’s debate night cheap shot at Joe Biden on the issue of busing appears to have backfired on her spectacularly.
After she was praised by left-wing pundits as the winner of the second Democratic presidential debate last week, Sen. Kamala Harris (CA) enjoyed a wave of positive polling numbers, increased fundraising numbers, and favorable publicity.
Her perceived debate victory stems from how she brutally confronted frontrunner Joe Biden on his remarks about working with segregationist Senators and his position on busing. Here’s the transcript of their remarks towards each other on the busing issue:
HARRIS: And I’m going to now direct this at Vice President Biden. I do not believe you are a racist. And I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground, but I also believe — and it is personal, and it was actually very hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputation and career on the segregation of race in this country. And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing. And you know, there was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me. So I will tell you that, on this subject, it cannot be an intellectual debate among Democrats. We have to take it seriously. We have to act swiftly. As attorney general of California, I was very proud to put in place a requirement that all my special agents wear body cameras and keep those cameras on.
BIDEN: A mischaracterization of my position across the board. I did not praise racists, that is not true. Number one. Number two, if we want to have this campaign litigated on who supports civil rights and whether I did or not, I’m happy to do that. I was a public defender. I didn’t become a prosecutor. I came out and left a good law firm to become a public defender when, in fact, when, in fact, when, in fact, my city was in flames because of the assassination of Dr. King. Number one, number two. Excuse me — as the vice president of the United States, I worked with a man who, in fact, we worked very hard to see it to, we dealt with these issues. And in a major, major way. The fact is that in terms of busing, the busing, I never — you would have been able to go to school the same exact way because it was a local decision made by your city council. That’s fine. That’s one of the things I argued for, that we should not be — we should be breaking down these lines. So the bottom line here is, look, everything I have done in my career, I ran because of civil rights. I continue to think we have to make fundamental changes in civil rights. And those civil rights, by the way, include not just African Americans but the L.G.B.T.Q. communities.
HARRIS: But Vice President Biden, do you agree today, do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose busing in America then? Do you agree?
BIDEN: I did not oppose busing in America. What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education. That’s what I opposed.
HARRIS: It’s a failure of states to integrate public schools in America. I was a part of the second class to integrate Berkeley, California, public schools almost two decades after Brown v. Board of Education.
BIDEN: Because your city council made that decision. It was a local decision.
HARRIS: That’s where the federal government must step in, that’s why we have the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act. That’s why we need to pass the Equality Act, it’s why we need to pass the E.R.A. Because there are moments in history where states fail to preserve the civil rights of all people.
Here’s video of their debate argument below:
WATCH: Harris says she doesn't think Biden is a racist, but she talks directly to Biden about his having worked with segregationists on the issue of school busing. #DemDebate2 pic.twitter.com/Ytb2xvOhux
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 28, 2019
A few days later, she reiterated her support for federally mandated busing:
On Sunday, Kamala Harris expressed support for new, federally mandated busing policies. “I support busing. Listen, the schools of America are as segregated, if not more segregated, today than when I was in elementary school,” Harris said. “Where states fail to do their duty to ensure equality of all people and in particular where states create or pass legislation that created inequality, there’s no question that the federal government has a role and a responsibility to step up.”
Here’s her full statement from that Sunday interview below:
.@KamalaHarris: “I support busing. Listen, the schools of America are as segregated, if not more segregated, today than when I was in [school]…need to put every effort, including busing, into play to de-segregate the schools…fed govt has a role & a responsibility to step up." pic.twitter.com/a7ujueP0Bu
— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) June 30, 2019
Though Biden himself has largely taken a neutral but not concessionary tone on Harris’s broadside since the debate, their surrogates have been battling it out on social media, including a tense back and forth exchange on Wednesday after the Associated Press reported that Harris’s position had shifted:
Oh. That's different. From @AP: 'Harris says busing should be considered, not mandated.' https://t.co/uRRalGihR1 pic.twitter.com/BNNopuyHjF
— Byron York (@ByronYork) July 4, 2019
Even David Axelrod, former senior advisor to President Obama, seemed confused as to why Harris brought this up in the first place considering her position has apparently changed:
It sounds here like @KamalaHarris is now taking something more like the @JoeBiden position on school busing. So what was that whole thing at the debate all about?https://t.co/bRDGzp7nvy
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) July 4, 2019
Because it was staged and planned, sir. Staged and planned:
Wait. Harris planned her attack on Biden long before the debate https://t.co/RQSWcXM3U8 If this is her stand on the issue, that means it was an utterly cynical stunt (since she doesn't really disagree with him)… https://t.co/l4CJ9UI5gl
— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) July 4, 2019
On Thursday, just a few days after saying “the schools of America are as segregated — if not more segregated — today than when I was in elementary school,” Harris said that the same segregation challenges that existed in the 70s do not exist today:
Harris talked busing and more, just now. Said she and Biden do not agree on the issue. And says that while she supports federally mandated busing to address certain challenges, those circumstances don't necessarily exist today. pic.twitter.com/vqOhU7Wrhv
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) July 4, 2019
Watch video of her revised answer on her position versus Biden’s below:
Sen. Kamala Harris: "[Joe Biden] has yet to agree that his position on this which was to work with segregationists and oppose busing was wrong, period. And you know let's just — do we need to do a quick lesson in history?" pic.twitter.com/JvhEhe7IM2
— The Hill (@thehill) July 5, 2019
Even the CNN chyron notes Harris’s position is now really no different than Biden’s:
Kamala Harris backtracks on busing position, saying busing should be "considered by a school district." pic.twitter.com/MS3t7XfTsx
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) July 4, 2019
In contrast to how her performance was hailed and praised by liberal commentators in the immediate aftermath of the debate, Harris’s debate night cheap shot at Joe Biden appears to have backfired on her spectacularly. I mean, you know it’s bad when even the Democrat-friendly mainstream media notices it and calls it out.
While she may welcome the short-term gains that have come from putting a dent in Biden’s poll numbers and popularity, Harris may find long-term that her well-documented penchant for conveniently flip flopping may come back to haunt her.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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Comments
Riding in the back of the short bus.
Kamala say:
“All natural born citizens must go the back of the bus – even the short bus.”
Which of course explains why Kamala is riding up front……
Snark Snark
You can sum her up in just four words:
All hat; no cattle.
Heh
More segregated now than when she was in elementary school? What planet is she on? Besides how can she tell since apparently she was in elementary school just last year.
She is just confused, Willie Brown banged her head into the unpadded headboard too many times. Willie’s wife unavailable for comment.
Yeah, all dressed up and nobody to….
Wait. Kamala Harris meant that as an adult she would consider taking the bus, but she wouldn’t want to be be forced to do so.
Is the issue diversity or proximity? The former is so very Democratic. The latter is akin to forcing immigration reform (e.g. refugee crisis) and celebrating the casualties and collateral damage at both ends of the bridge and throughout.
A few months ago during a book tour Victor Davis Hanson commented on how Trump, no matter where he campaigns, always wears a business suit. He doesn’t change apparel to suit the tastes of a supposed audience. He doesn’t pretend to be anything other than The Donald. He would eat BBQ in a business suit. Of course he wears golfing clothes on the golf course, but otherwise he’s always suited up.
The videos linked here show Harris wearing her work-a-day-Jane/Alejandra blouses alongside her balding, pasty white SWJ minder. Both have dressed down for the 4th of July picnic crowd. I guess that’s nothing new. Two time loser Mitt Romney would ‘dress down’ in “deplorable” counties and suit back up in DC courtier country. Politicians do that.
This notion of dressing up and down speaks to a wider public perception, and is kind of subtle point, but dressing down (in this presidential election) imparts the idea subconsciously that the political candidate is chameleon-like and not a wholly honest thing. VDH thinks it sells well to Hispanics, too. Search for VDH’s “the case for trump” book tour podcasts, it’s pretty interesting fare and he makes a run at power politics.
In any other election I don’t think this makes much of a difference – but this isn’t a typical or normal presidential election cycle either.
No matter what she says or does, any criticism of Harris is racism and sexism. Or so says the MSM/DNC axis.
talking outta her arse as usual
Harris looks a lot like a woman whom I worked under for three or four miserable, anxiety-ridden years.
Every day going to work my stomach was in a knot. This woman hated me for being a white male and for being very good at my job.
When I saw Harris’s blatantly opportunistic cheap shot at Biden, I saw the same identity politics obsessed personality as the incompetent woman who tried to torment me with the power she wielded over me.
My intuition tells me this woman is bad news. I’d bet behind the scenes she makes Klobuchar seem all warm and fuzzy be comparison.
Willie’s Ho might not know where she stands, but she sure as hell know where to kneel.
Did Kamala benefit from busing because there was a bus stop in front of Willie Brown’s house?
Cooler heads probably convinced Kamala that she would even lose the “soccer mom” voting segment if she kept pushing federally-mandated busing.
Kamala may be the most dangerous of all the Dems. She is ruthless and has already indicated that she will use executive orders to rob citizens of their freedom.
Putin’s Russia may afford citizens more freedom tham Kamala’s Amerika.
Wait, didn’t Harris’ communications director just today hit Biden for seemingly retaining his opposition to busing? I mean, even as there seems to be total confusion where Harris actually stands.
“I will say Vice President Biden seems to stand by his opposition to bussing from back in 1969,” Adams told host Alisyn Camerota. “I couldn’t really tell from his interview. It seemed like Chris [Cuomo] was trying to pin him down, but that is a fundamental, you know, point of disagreement on his record that Senator Harris highlighted in the debate. And that still remains a point of disagreement. And that’s fine. That’s what campaigns are about.”
How about we have this mandatory ‘busing’ for congress-critters. We could ship a bunch of them off to Canada and Venezuela and Mexico for a few terms to even out the ‘representation’.
You ship any of them to Canada and we’ll send you Trudeau and his cabinet. They’ll all be out of work in October.
That escalated quickly.
How bout instead of busing those congress critters….
We ship’em out…to the middle of the ocean…and drop’em off…after they’ve been fitted with lead filled life-jackets…????
What have you got against Canada?
Kamala Harris is simply a politician. Her position, on any subject, will be whatever she perceives will benefit her personally. And, she is consistent in her inconsistency.
Politicians firmly believe that their constituents are both stupid and have the attention span of a garden slug. Now, as their constituents DID elect them, they might be more correct than we would like to believe. What happened, since Trump was elected and has been keeping his promises to a surprising extent, is that people are now showing an increased concern that politicians actually mean what they say. This spells trouble for traditional politicians.
I wonder what she thinks of the black-only graduations at some of the elite colleges? The rest of the class graduates together.
How can anyone expect Senator Harris to know what her position is on busing until she sees the polls.
Kamala Harris is one of those lawyers that speaks with great confidence, so that some listeners will always be initially on her side. Then when people remember and think over what she said, they realize she wasn’t making sense.
She reminds me of the animal house speech at a hearing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROxvT8KKdFw
In BHO’s words, “I’d walk a mile for a Kamala.”
*thhhhhhhwp*…
…
…*pwahhhhhhh*
Dudes!
Can someone please explain to me how you plan to run zoning and school districts, etc. when busing is optional but not mandatory???
Easy. Forget bussing — let them take Uber!
And we’ll pay for it all with a 1% tax on the 1%. Math!
Kamala Harris backpedals so much and so hard that if it were a real bike it would throw a chain and kill somebody.
Harris is a vicious, narcissist, angry fascist.
She KNOWS she’s only where she is because she spread her legs and/or got down on her knees for a guy named Willie Brown. That tends to make inadequate people feel very, very angry when they get ahead this way.
She stands right where every other PANDER BEAR in history has. Both sides until you can determine what way the winds blowing.