Presidential race turned on its head as Kamala Harris ambushes Joe Biden at debate

One question loomed over today’s presidential debate — could anyone take down Joe Biden? The answer was a stunning, resounding yes.

Kamala Harris took on Joe Biden directly, and wiped the floor with him. Picture: NBC News

One question loomed over today’s Democratic debate — could anyone take down Joe Biden?

Barack Obama’s vice president has coasted in early polls of the Democratic candidates, solidifying him as the favourite to claim the party’s presidential nomination and take on Donald Trump in next year’s election.

RELATED: Is Joe Biden really the best candidate?

But this was the first opportunity his rivals have had to confront him directly. One of them well and truly seized that chance.

Senator Kamala Harris, the former attorney-general of California, showed off her prosecutorial skills and announced herself as a top contender for the nomination with a dominant performance.

There were nine other candidates on stage, and she blew them all away.

The key moment came when Ms Harris jumped into a discussion several other candidates were having about the fraught relationship between police and African-Americans.

“As the only black person on stage, I would like to speak on the issue of race,” Ms Harris said, drawing loud cheers from the crowd.

“There is not a black man I know, be he a relative, a friend or a co-worker, who has not been the subject of profiling or discrimination. My sister and I had to deal with the neighbour who told us her parents couldn’t play with us because we were black.”

Then she turned to face Mr Biden.

That’s Kamala Harris on the right, Joe Biden on the left, and Bernie Sanders standing awkwardly in the crossfire. Picture: AFP/Saul Loeb

“And I’m going to say that in this campaign, we’ve also heard — and I’m going to direct this at Vice President Biden,” Ms Harris continued.

“I do not believe you are a racist. And I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground.

“But I also believe — and it’s personal, and it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country.”

That was a reference to a controversial comment Mr Biden made earlier this month, touting his working relationship with two pro-segregation senators decades ago as proof of his ability to work constructively with the other side of politics.

“At least there was some civility. We got things done. We didn’t agree on much of anything. We got things done,” Mr Biden told the crowd at a fundraiser in New York.

“It was not only that, but you worked with them to oppose bussing,” Ms Harris went on.

In the 1970s and 1980s, a number of American school districts implemented mandatory bussing policies, which saw students assigned and transported to particular schools in an effort to achieve a level of racial balance.

The schools themselves had previously been segregated, and had struggled to achieve any sort of balance due to the continuing racial inequality between residential areas.

There was fierce opposition to the bussing policy from some quarters, and Mr Biden opposed the idea of a federal law mandating its implementation nationwide, arguing it was a matter for state and local governments.

“There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public school, and she was bussed to school every day. And that little girl was me,” Ms Harris said.

“So I will tell you that on this subject, it cannot be an intellectual debate among Democrats. We have to take it seriously. We have to act swiftly.”

The moment Ms Harris said ‘that little girl was me’. Mr Biden, who had been looking away, immediately turned to face her. Picture: NBC News

Mr Biden had to wait 10 seconds for the crowd’s cheering to subside before responding to Ms Harris.

“It’s a mischaracterisation of my position across the board. I did not praise racists. That is not true,” the former vice president said, denying an accusation she had not made.

“If we want to have this campaign litigated on who supports civil rights, and whether I did or not, I’m happy to do that. I was a public defender. I didn’t become a prosecutor, I left a good law firm to become a public defender.”

That last comment, which appeared to be a subtle jab at Ms Harris’s career as a prosecutor, drew a few “oohs” from the audience.

“As the vice president of the United States, I worked with a man who — in fact, we worked very hard to see to it that we dealt with these (racial) issues in a major, major way,” he continued.

“In terms of bussing, I never — you would have been able to go school the same exact way, because it was a local decision made by your city council. That’s fine, that’s one of the things I argued for.

“The bottom line is, look, everything I’ve done in my career — I ran because of civil rights, I continue to think we have to make fundamental changes in civil rights.”

Ms Harris listened to his answer silently, then pounced again.

“But Vice President Biden, do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose bussing in America then? Do you agree?” she asked.

“No, I did not oppose bussing in America. What I opposed is bussing ordered by the Department of Education. That’s what I opposed,” Mr Biden clarified.

“Well there was a failure of states to integrate public schools in America. I was part of the second class to integrate — Berkeley, California public schools — almost two decades after Brown v Board of Education,” Ms Harris said.

Brown v Board of Education was a landmark Supreme Court case in 1954. The court ruled unanimously that racial segregation of school students was unconstitutional.

“Because your city council made that decision. It was a local decision,” Mr Biden fired back.

“So that’s where the federal government must step in. That’s why we have the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act,” Ms Harris said.

“There are moments in history where states fail to preserve the civil rights of all people.”

The short version of Ms Harris’s argument was that segregationists used “states’ rights” as an excuse not to implement desegregationist policies, and Mr Biden should have supported a federal law making bussing mandatory across the entire country.

Kamala Harris. Picture: AFP/Saul Loeb

Spare a thought for Bernie Sanders, who had to stand awkwardly in the crossfire as Ms Harris and Mr Biden threw their metaphorical punches past him.

The former vice president struggled in other moments of the debate as well.

At one point, the candidates were asked to raise their hands if they supported decriminalising the act of crossing the border between the United States and Mexico. Mr Biden hesitated, then raised his hand about halfway.

When the confused moderators asked him to clarify his position, he still did not give a straight answer.

He also delivered an underwhelming answer when asked why voters should trust his judgment on foreign policy, given he initially supported the Iraq War.

Meanwhile, Ms Harris continued to own the stage, consistently delivering the sharpest answers and drawing the most applause.

“Kamala Harris had a moment that was two hours long. I mean a star was born tonight,” CNN host and analyst Van Jones said afterwards.

“She completely dominated the stage, and most importantly, she would kick Donald Trump’s butt, and she proved it tonight. That was — if you had any doubt that you could nominate a woman that would take Donald Trump to the woodshed, she just took it away from you.”

Jones also slammed Mr Biden’s defence of his stance on bussing.

“That very argument was the argument that was used that the federal government should leave us. So he just took the heart out of the civil rights movement with that argument,” he said.

“Our plea was that we are one, the Constitution applies to all of us, and we want the federal government to stand with us and against the local racists.”

Other media reaction reached the same conclusion — Ms Harris was the clear winner of the debate, and Mr Biden had taken a beating.

Will this debate change the polls? That remains to be seen. But it feels like the race for the Democratic nomination changed in a big way today.