Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) said former Vice President Joe Biden was “ignorant of the history of race in this country” when he told segregationists senators called him son, not boy.
Partial transcript as follows:
O’KEEFE: Let’s talk about Joe Biden.
HARRIS: Ok.
O’KEEFE: You’ve criticized him for praising his ability to work with people who had very different views.
HARRIS: No that wasn’t my criticism.
O’KEEFE: What was your criticism?
HARRIS: I applaud any effort to work across party lines around common goals and common interests.
O’KEEFE: What bothered you?
HARRIS: Praising and coddling individuals who made it their life works and built their reputation off of segregation of the races in the United States. That’s a problem. I would not be a member of the United States Senate if those men that he praised had their way. I wouldn’t.
O’KEEFE: And one of the things they did is, and he inferred this, is they might have called someone like him who was younger ‘son,’ they might’ve called a black man, ‘boy.’ And that’s been part of the issue for a lot of African-Americans–
HARRIS: Of course it is, of course it is–.
O’KEEFE: We’ve talked to here and across the country, is that offensive to you?
HARRIS: We cannot be ignorant of the history of race in this country. And certainly anyone who is a leader should not be. That is a very loaded term, loaded with a history that includes extreme racism, violence. Discrimination prejudice you name it. All of that. It’s a very loaded term. And I think it is very important that we all who. Who are leaders, or profess to be leaders that we choose our words carefully understanding the significance and the power of our word.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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