Kamala Harris spoke slowly but bluntly as she stared at Joe Biden, then began treating him as a hostile witness.
The former prosecutor turned California senator started by saying she didn't think the former vice president "was a racist." But she criticized him for recently "defending segregationists" in the Senate and for once opposing mandatory busing of students to desegregated public schools.
Harris described a young girl in the 1970s who boarded such buses before dramatically offering, "That little girl was me."
Moments after the exchange, her campaign tweeted a picture of a school-age Harris with pigtails, over the caption: "There was a little girl in California who was bussed to school. That little girl was me."
Harris shot back, "There are moments in history where states fail to support the civil rights of people."
When Joe Biden endorsed Harris during her 2016 Senate race, he noted that his son "always supported her."
Others also tried to hit Biden during Thursday's debate. Mere moments into the action, 38-year-old California Rep. Eric Swalwell recalled being just 6 when he saw Biden speak, saying the ex-vice president was "right when he said it was time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans."
Biden, 76, was better prepared for quips about his age, retorting, "I'm still holding onto that torch."
Subsequently jumping to Biden's defense was 77-year-old Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said the issue "is not generational."
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