Trump: Harris ‘given too much credit’ for attack on Biden

President Trump said Saturday that he thought Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) was “given too much credit” following a blistering exchange with Joe Biden during Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate.

“I thought that she was given too much credit,” Trump said of Harris during a news conference in Japan. “He didn’t do well, certainly, and maybe the facts weren’t necessarily on his side.”

Trump went on to say he thought the exchange between the two top tier presidential candidates “wasn’t that outstanding,” adding that he believed Biden “was probably hit harder than he should have been hit.”{mosads}

The president maintained that he felt the exchange was overblown, adding that he didn’t believe Biden’s response was “great.” 

“That was so out of the can … I think it was right out of a box,” he said. “And I think he didn’t respond great — this is not Winston Churchill we’re dealing with. But I don’t think it was nearly as bad as they portended it to be.”

Asked if Harris would be a tough opponent in the 2020 election, Trump said: “You never know who’s going to be tough. You never know … The one that you think is going to be tough turned out to be not much.”

Trump’s remarks came just two days after the first round of Democratic presidential primary debates. 

Biden faltered in his performance after Harris confronted him for his warm comments about working with two segregationist senators and his past opposition to school busing.

Harris blasted Biden’s previous stance against busing black students to predominantly white schools, a policy that she said she personally benefited from as a child.

Biden defended himself Friday during a speech in Chicago, saying that “I fought my heart out to ensure that civil rights and voting rights, equal rights are enforced everywhere” and that he “never, ever opposed voluntary busing.”