Joe Biden admitted in an interview airing Friday that he was not prepared for Sen. Kamala Harris' bruising Democrat debate attack on him on race issues.
"I was prepared for them to come after me, but I wasn't prepared for the person coming at me the way she came at me," Biden told CNN's Chris Cuomo Thursday evening in Iowa, for an extensive interview airing Friday, adding that Harris also knew his late son, Beau.
During the first debate, Harris, D-Calif., a former prosecuting attorney, confronted Biden on his fight against busing while he was in the Senate . He told Cuomo that his position from back then was "taken out of contest" by Harris.
He also said he was frustrated that the debate focused on his policies from years ago, not what candidates want to do moving forward, and he'll hold off on similar attacks.
Harris since the debate has been trying to clarify her position on busing, and key aids for both campaigns have been sparring back and forth on social media, but Biden still defended his past positions, saying that "busing did not work."
"You had an overwhelming response from the African American community in my state," Biden, who represented Delaware, said. "They were, they did not support it. They did not support it."
He said, though, that he does have plans for equalizing education, including tripling funding for disadvantaged schools and making preschool available for children from the age of 3.
Meanwhile, he denied he'd be intimidated by President Donald Trump in a debate because he's "the bully that I knew my whole life."
"He's the bully that used to make fun (of me) when I was a kid that I stutter, and I'd smack him in the mouth," said Biden.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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