Kamala Harris was in conflict.
The California senator needed a stir in the first Democratic presidential debate, and her main rival, favorite Joe Biden, seemed to have seized a perfect opportunity. Days earlier, at a fundraising event in New York City, she recalled a past time in the Senate and her ability to work civilly alongside two segregationist lawmakers.
Harris, the second black woman to serve in the chamber, was deeply offended. But she also had warm feelings for Biden, a friend and political ally of the past.
Her decision to call him to account before a national primetime audience produced one of the most electric moments of the 2020 campaign, and, more than a year later, it continues to resonate as the alleged Democratic candidate elects his vice presidential candidate . Harris is seen as a great contender.
However, the heated exchange on a tropical June night in Miami has complicated Harris’ hopes of landing on the ticket, even when Biden appears, at least publicly, to have forgiven his former rival.
More broadly, the crash and the deliberations that led to it suggest the approach Harris would take as Biden’s running mate, a style not far removed from his days as a prosecutor, when he relied on meticulous preparation, dramatic presence, and willingness to set aside. personal feelings to do what it takes to prevail.
“It’s like being in the courtroom,” said an associate from Harris’ days as California’s attorney general, who described his ability to compartmentalize. “You can have the utmost respect and good relations with the defense attorney or public defender. But you’re there to win. “
Harris declined to be interviewed. But numerous people involved in his presidential candidacy spoke for this article; the majority wished not to be identified to freely discuss the inner workings of the campaign.
Some praised her performance in the debate, saying she showed Harris’s tenacity and strength in the limelight and separated her from the group of Democratic contestants.
“She proved that she is someone who can throw and hit,” said Brian Brokaw, a long-time Harris strategist who chaired an independent political action committee that supports his presidential bid. “One of the attributes you want is someone who doesn’t shy away from a fight and faces people in power. That’s something she has proven time and time again. “
Others were more critical, saying Harris’ genuine anguish over Biden’s comments about working with southern senators was overshadowed when he raised another issue, the school bus, and then confused their differences and undermined his attack.
Some Biden sponsors, meanwhile, continue to fuel resentments, believing that Harris, who was good friends with Biden’s late son Beau, looked at him unfairly. Having lobbied against the California junior senatorial team, one in half a dozen women floated as potential career partners.
Biden has said he would announce his choice sometime around August 1.
‘It’s like being in the courtroom. You can have the utmost respect and good relations with the defense attorney or public defender. But you are there to win.
An Associate of Kamala Harris’ Years as California Attorney General
Whether they choose it or not, Harris’s initial debate remains a defining moment of his time on the presidential stage.
She launched her candidacy in January 2019 with a massive Martin Luther King Jr. Day gathering in Oakland and immediately emerged as a top White House contestant. But by the time the first debate came, six months later, her campaign was adrift and Harris had receded in the Democratic field when others, especially former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, captured voters’ imaginations.
The debate was seen as a kind of relaunch.
Harris’ strategy for claiming the Democratic nomination had always been to beat opening contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, win Nevada, then prevail in South Carolina, quickly building momentum from there.
The problem was Biden’s deep ties to the Palmetto state and loyal supporters among South Carolina’s large black electorate.
The debate offered Harris the opportunity to confront Biden directly and, by highlighting his comments about working with segregationist senators, trying to undermine his black support.
But Harris was concerned. He liked and respected Biden a lot and said during the preparations for the debate that he did not want to portray him as a racist.
“The puzzle was how to go after someone … with whom you had a long-standing relationship,” said one political adviser. “How do you attack without doing it in such a way that you burn all the bridges?”
Harris’s solution was to start with a direct statement when he faced Biden on stage. “I don’t think you’re racist,” he said, and then continued. “I also believe, and it’s personal … it was painful to hear him speak about the reputation of two United States senators who built their reputations and careers in the segregation of race in this country.”
Leaning her body toward Biden, she said she worked with those senators to oppose school transportation as a means of desegregation. “There was a girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and every day they took her by bus to school,” she said. “And that girl was me.”
It was not a new revelation. Harris had often spoken of that chapter of his life growing up in Berkeley, but he landed hard. Biden looked nervous, then angry.
“I was prepared for them to come after me,” he said later on CNN. “But I was not prepared for the person who was coming towards me as he came towards me.
“She knew Beau,” added Biden. “She knows me.”
Something else raised his eyebrows. Within hours of the debate, a photo of Harris as a schoolgirl was emblazoned on a T-shirt on her campaign website. While it’s not unusual for a candidate to take advantage of such a moment, critics said the marketing made it appear that Harris’s sentiments were more calculated than truthful.
She lobbied the attack in a blitz of media appearances. “Listen, we are in a discussion stage, and if you have not prepared and are not ready for someone to point out a difference opinion … then you’re probably not ready, “he said on ABC’s” The View. ”
But Harris soon came under scrutiny for his own position on transportation. During the debate, she said it was a matter of federal concern, then, in later days, said the decision should be left primarily to local officials, with Washington intervening in rare cases.
The Biden campaign accused Harris of criticizing him for occupying essentially the same position. While that wasn’t entirely true, the claim overlooked Biden’s actions that opposed transportation in the 1970s and 1980s, dampened Harris’ attack, dissipated his momentum, and took some of the shine off his performance. in the debate.
The two continued on. Biden apologized to black voters in South Carolina for her comment on segregation lawmakers. Harris slowly fell from discord.
On the occasions when their paths crossed, the two were friendly, according to the people who joined them in the election campaign. When Harris dropped out of the race in December, Biden called her and then offered her kind words. “She is really a solid, solid and talented person,” he told reporters.
When asked about their heated exchange of discussions, Biden said, “I am not good at holding resentments.”
However, it was not so easy for others to forgive or forget.
At a fundraiser in March, Biden’s wife, Jill, recalled her son’s relationship with Harris during his time as Delaware’s attorney general and her husband’s surprise when he confronted him in Miami.
“Our son Beau spoke highly of her and … how great she was,” said Jill Biden, “and it’s not that I’m not, I’m not saying.” But it was like a punch in the gut. It was a little unexpected. “
More recently, appearing with Harris on a Zoom call to discuss the Affordable Care Act, Jill Biden praised the senator as “a role model for girls and women across the country, “and cited” the special connection “he enjoyed with Beau.
Still, some who opposed Harris’s selection as vice president referred to her performance in the debate.
“I am Irish and we Irish have a grudge,” John Morgan, a Florida lawyer and a major donor to Biden, told the Washington Post. “It was cruel. It was meant to kill him. And she was probably the person I never expected, which made me more treacherous. “
Another longtime Biden supporter views his actions as personal betrayal and questions how Harris could serve as vice president. “You can trust her?” said Biden’s informal adviser, who declined to be identified discussing the candidate’s deliberations over his running mate. “I do not think so.”
Appearing last month on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Harris felt pressured by her criticism of Biden and how the two appear to have repaired their relationship.
“How do you go from being such a passionate opponent on those fundamental principles to you and now you guys seem to be friends?” Colbert asked.
“It was a debate,” Harris said, laughing, and then repeated the point several more times.
When Colbert persisted, Harris became serious.
“I have known Joe for a long time and I deeply care about him,” he said. “And as you know, we all have family or friends with whom we have disagreements. That does not outweigh or overshadow the community between us and the connections between us.
“I am,” said Harris, “1,000 percent support for Joe Biden.”
