A surrogate for former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign accused fellow White House contenders of employing President Trump’s divisive approach during the Wednesday’s night debate in Detroit.
“Unfortunately because the vice president is leading in this primary election many of the opponents in this primary have taken many of the approaches of President Donald Trump to be divisive,” Delaware state Sen. Darius Brown (D) told Hill.TV following the debate.
“The vice president has continued to rise above all of those things and stick to the issues about how he looks to restore the soul of our country and how there are limitless opportunities for us as a country through his leadership,” he added.
Brown went on to defend Biden over attacks from Cory Booker (D-N.J.) over criminal justice reform.
“I don’t believe that he got it so wrong then and I don’t believe the critique that Sen. Booker’s trying to give to Vice President Biden is a critique that he can not also take when he was mayor in the city of Newark, New Jersey,” he said. “What Vice President Biden understands is that the work that he did was work that was also work that was supported by many members of the congressional black caucus.”
Biden, who holds a significant edge over his opponents, was the main target during the second round of Democratic debates. Nearly every other Democrat on stage took turns challenging the front runner over his record on everything from civil rights and women’s rights to immigration.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) was the first to kick of the attacks, who criticized Biden for “telling wealthy donors nothing will fundamentally change if he were president.”
Both Booker and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) took aim at Biden’s stance on civil rights.
While Harris re-upped her federal busing attack, Booker confronted Biden over his role in drafting the 1994 crime bill, which has been blamed for the rise of mass incarceration.
“You’re dippin’ into the Kool-Aid and don’t even know the flavor,” Booker said after the vice president attempted to return the fire.
Biden stood by his record amid the onslaught of attacks.
“Everybody’s talking about how terrible I am on all these issues,” he said at one point during the debate. “Barack Obama knew exactly who I was.”
Following the debate, commentators noted that Biden appeared better prepared compared to his performance in the first Democratic debate, where he was caught off guard by his high-profile exchange with Harris over school busing and work with segregationist senators during his time in Congress.
The former vice president stood his ground when he went head-to-head with Harris over her proposed Medicare for All proposal, arguing Harris’s plan would be too expensive. Harris said in turn that Biden’s plan would leave millions of Americans without health care coverage.
He also shook off an attack from from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who tried to portray him as an opponent of women’s rights for an op-ed he wrote in 1981.
“I don’t understand what’s happened other than now you’re running for president,” Biden responded.
—Tess Bonn
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