Page 17 - School Busing News Today

Harder than he should have been hit. >> who are he and she? the he vice president joe biden, the she senator kamala harris. the president speaking overnight in japan during a more than hour long news conference at the g20. there he was actually defending joe biden, former vice president, after senator harris confronted him over his work to stop school busing. >> yeah, now former vice president biden is holding steady apparently as the democratic front runner in the 2020 race. senator harris show...

These are live pictures coming to us from the rainbow push coalition event in chicago this hour. and the former vice president joe biden is going to be speaking at this event shortly so were keeping an eye on it. were going to bring it to you live. hes there trying to shore up some support after attacks on his record on race in last nights debate. i want to get some perspective how bidens past and current positions are playing into the race. the national cochair of the biden campaign and former ...

Issue of race. >> reporter: harris blasting biden for his recent comments on race by using her childhood as an example. >> 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 was personal -- it was actually very -- it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two united states senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. and it was not only...

For it with a more eloquent answer? >> absolutely. as we focus on -- also the failure of the vice president to perform last night. he appeared halting. he appeared grasping for answers that he had practiced. and i think he failed on a number of levels to respond adequately to what she was saying about his harkening back to an era where he could work with those who are segregationists to get things done in the name of bipartisanship. failing to champion states right, thats his opinion on busing i...

Opposition into busing comes into sharper focus. on march 25, 1977 biden wrote my bill strikes at the heart of injustice of court ordered busing. it prohibits federal courts from disrupting our education. biden sought and received support from mississippi senator eastland and a leading symbol of southern resistance to desegregation. he frequently smoke of blacks as a quote inferior race. >> there are a bunchests, james oeast of mississippi, thurman and so on. there were nine guys who were on the...

Turned and confronted former vice president joe biden on his having worked with segregationist senators and his opposition to school busing in the 1970s. the former vice president took heat from many of his rivals. >> but it was that exchange with harris, some people calling it the biggest moment of the campaign so far. it does have implications on all kinds of levels. race was a big factor also for another leading candidate pete buttigieg. we will show you that moment. and breaking news from ju...

And last night he listened to senator harris, and then when it was his turn to talk i think part of it was the make sure that people understood his record, that he did not oppose busing in that instance. >> i have to ask you he did oppose busing. he called, busing, quote a bankrupt concept you mentioned in 1974. but from mississippi, kwoe quote, i want you to know i very much appreciate your help in this weeks committee meeting helping to bring my anti-busing legislation to a vote. and on the ci...

Where states acted to segregate the schools. so whether it was state action or voluntary, he supported busing. and in fact in 1974 he was the deciding vote on an amendment in the senate that would have ended busing once and for all. and he was the deciding vote to stop that. so i think that where the vice president got very nuanced was on whether the federal courts and the federal governments should go in where there was not a policy in place for segregation but that it was segregation because o...

The massive amounts of inequity that exists but the racial inequity that exists. >> after kamala harris gave that personal explanation of school busing -- >> i am not going to speculate on that. all i know is we are running hard. i think were looking good in iowa and new hampshire. i think we stand the next chance of winning the democratic nomination, and if we do that im absolutely confident were going to defeat donald trump. how are you? >> what was your experience at the detention center? >> ...

Senator harris and joe biden. one of the parts we did not play, she talked about busing. she said she was part of the second class of students in oakland that was bussed. senator biden was against federally mandating school busing in the 1970s. were you satisfied with his defense of his record on that in. >> i think joe biden is going to have to talk a lot about his record during this election, and i think its only right he talk about everything of his support for the 1994 crime bill which was s...