Biden, Harris campaigns get in Twitter spat over busing remarks

Staffers for former Vice President Joe Biden (D) and Sen. Kamala Harris’s (D-Calif.) campaigns got in a Twitter feud Wednesday over the 2020 hopefuls’ comments regarding school busing.

Kate Bedingfield, deputy campaign manager and communications director for Biden, shared an article from The Associated Press characterizing Harris’s position on school busing as a method of integrating American schools that should be an option, not a mandate from the federal government.

“It’s disappointing that Senator Harris chose to distort Vice President Biden’s position on busing — particularly now that she is tying herself in knots trying not to answer the very question she posed to him!” Bedingfield said.

It’s disappointing that Senator Harris chose to distort Vice President Biden’s position on busing — particularly now that she is tying herself in knots trying not to answer the very question she posed to him! https://t.co/kiYYk5kg3m

— Kate Bedingfield (@KBeds) July 3, 2019

{mosads}Harris strongly supported federal mandates for school busing during the first 2020 Democratic debate last month in a fiery exchange with Biden, during which she slammed the former vice president for not supporting busing programs like the ones she benefited from as a student.

Ian Sams, Harris’s national press secretary, retweeted Bedingfield’s comment, firing back, “VP Biden said: ‘Who the hell do we think we are that the only way a black man or woman can learn is if they rub shoulders with my white child?’ He called busing an ‘asinine concept.’ C’mon. Y’all are better than this.”

VP Biden said: “Who the hell do we think we are that the only way a black man or woman can learn is if they rub shoulders with my white child?” He called busing an “asinine concept.”

C’mon. Y’all are better than this. https://t.co/usDNsgxOYu

— Ian Sams (@IanSams) July 3, 2019

Bedingfield responded, “Hi Ian! If we’re cherry-picking quotes on Twitter, what about this one from this January? Sen. Harris: ‘I think there are many people who would make a good president… I’m very fond of Joe Biden, so you’re not gonna hear me criticize Joe Biden. I think he’s a great guy.’ ”

Hi Ian! If we’re cherry-picking quotes on Twitter, what about this one from this January? Sen. Harris: “I think there are many people who would make a good president… I’m very fond of Joe Biden, so you’re not gonna hear me criticize Joe Biden. I think he’s a great guy.”

— Kate Bedingfield (@KBeds) July 3, 2019

Harris’s standout performance in the first debate has tightened up the race with Biden. In two polls released Wednesday, Biden saw his support slip while Harris has overtaken Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to rise to third place among the slate of Democratic candidates in the 2020 primary field.