Jill Biden’s fury at Kamala Harris over debate ambush revealed

Publicly, there are no signs of tension between the Bidens and Kamala Harris. Privately though, the First Lady once had reason to be furious.

By all appearances, US President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their two spouses get along well. But for a frosty period last year, the Bidens’ feelings towards Ms Harris were nowhere near as warm.

A new book examining the 2020 presidential campaign includes an intriguing behind-the-scenes account of a tense moment between Mr Biden and Ms Harris, which blindsided the future president and infuriated his wife, Dr Jill Biden.

It happened way back in mid-2019, during the Democratic primaries, when Mr Biden and Ms Harris were both high profile candidates for their party’s presidential nomination.

During a televised debate, Ms Harris decided to show off the prosecutorial skills she’d honed as attorney general of California by ambushing Mr Biden.

Several other candidates were discussing the fraught relationship between police and African-Americans when she jumped in.

“As the only black person on stage, I would like to speak on the issue of race,” she said.

“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.

RELATED: Kamala Harris ambushes Biden in presidential debate

Meanwhile, old mate Bernie Sanders stood awkwardly in the middle. Picture: Drew Angerer/Getty Images/AFP

“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.”

She was referring to a controversial comment Mr Biden made earlier that 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 African-American students assigned and transported to particular schools in an effort to achieve a level of racial balance.

The schools in question 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 attack took Mr Biden by surprise. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

That line was a hit with the audience, and Mr Biden had to wait 10 seconds for its cheering to subside before he could respond.

“It’s a mischaracterisation of my position across the board. I did not praise racists. That is not true,” he said.

“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,” he added, taking a swipe at Ms Harris’s career.

The pair kept bickering for a while, but you get the picture.

Edward-Isaac Dovere, a staff writer at The Atlantic, has written a book called Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats’ Campaigns to Defeat Trump. Today, Politico published an excerpt focused on the confrontation between Mr Biden and Ms Harris and its aftermath.

A few minutes after their exchange, Dovere says, the debate was paused for an ad break. Mr Biden leaned over to Pete Buttigieg, another candidate who is now serving in the President’s cabinet as Secretary of Transportation.

“Well, that was some f***ing bulls***,” Mr Biden said.

“They barely knew each other, but Biden was looking for someone to share the moment with,” Dovere notes.

He goes on to describe the reaction of Mr Biden’s worried staff, who felt his campaign was “teetering” and he was “coming off as old, angry and spiteful”.

Jill Biden, meanwhile, was furious.

The Bidens with Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff on Inauguration Day. Picture: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The future first lady was in the audience for the debate, and was “about ready to jump out” of her seat. She was particularly annoyed because Ms Harris was a friend of Mr Biden’s late son Beau – they had been state attorneys general at the same time.

“She couldn’t bear to watch a woman who called herself a friend of her son’s – although Beau was not Dr Biden’s biological child, she’d raised him his entire life as if he were – try to tear her husband down to score a point at a debate,” says Dovere.

A week later, during a phone call with close supporters, Dr Biden was less than diplomatic.

“With what he cares about, what he fights for, what he’s committed to, you get up there and call him a racist without basis?” Dr Biden vented.

“Go f*** yourself.”

Mr Biden went on to pick Ms Harris as his nominee for the vice presidency, of course, and there have been no public signs of tension between them since.