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I unfortunately missed this - bad cold, bed called to me.
But it was effective.
Harris started by defusing the immediate reax “Are you calling me a racist?” by saying “I do not believe you are a racist.”
Lawyerly. Get the objection out of the way, then get down to business.
But it was effective.
Harris started by defusing the immediate reax “Are you calling me a racist?” by saying “I do not believe you are a racist.”
Lawyerly. Get the objection out of the way, then get down to business.
Kamala made clear she was objecting to what Joe DID, not to who Joe IS inside. That’s a proper subject for debate, and Biden didn’t defend well. Not surprising. They’re not defensible, and I’m floored that he keeps defending them rather than admitting “I’ve learned and grown.”
Joe has some wise counselors, and they should counsel him to quit fighting this point. Not that I want him to recover and be the nominee. It’s just that his knee-jerk blindness and defensiveness is so fucking white privilege that it embarrasses me.
Now, does Harris really “not believe” that Joe’s a racist? Unimportant. Conceding that point took away Joe’s ability to claim he was being personally attacked, and made his defenses to what she explicitly said she was NOT asserting seem weak.
It was especially weak that Joe fell into “states’ rights” language. The central euphemism of late-20th-century racists for racism shouldn’t just roll off one’s tongue in 2019.
