Two weeks after her star-making performance at the first Democratic presidential primary debate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) returned to The View on Friday to face some of Joe Biden’s biggest media boosters.
Before getting to Biden, co-host Ana Navarro asked the former prosecutor to weigh in on the morning’s hottest topic: the resignation of Trump’s labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, over his involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Harris “absolutely” disputed the notion that Acosta cut the toughest deal he could with Epstein, calling child sexual-assault cases “some of the most difficult cases to prosecute” because “you’re asking a jury to believe a young person over an adult.” Any prosecutor “worth their salt,” she said, should have put Epstein’s case before a jury and made sure he went to prison “for a long period of time.”
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“It is difficult, but it’s done every day in courtrooms in America,” she added. “Every day in courtrooms in America, prosecutors are prosecuting these cases and getting convictions. I got them. I personally got them. So that’s what I find so troubling about the narrative.”
It was left to Meghan McCain to change the subject.
“I think we’re all in agreement of how abhorrent all of it is, and it’s very difficult to talk about, but I’m glad we are,” she said. “I need to pivot though if you don’t mind. So let’s talk about Joe Biden.”
In an attempt at a “gotcha” moment, McCain brought up a pre-debate quote from Harris in which the senator said, “You are not going to hear me criticize Joe Biden. I think he’s a great guy.” McCain said she thinks “a lot of people are curious what happened to that promise.”
“I have no intention of attacking Joe Biden, but I am going to point out our differences of opinion on a very critical moment in the history of the United States,” Harris said calmly. She went on to explain that it was Biden’s comments about segregationist senators that prompted her to bring up the issue of busing in the debate.
“So listen, this is a presidential race,” Harris said. “And I absolutely agree and believe and maintain that we should not have personal attacks against each other, we should not be attacking each other, but we’re on a debate stage.”
As McCain interrupted the senator to say that a Biden adviser called her “slick and slippery,” Harris held up a finger and said, “Hold on!”
“Well, you know what?” Harris continued. “We’re on a debate stage, and if you have not prepared and you’re not ready for somebody to point out a difference of opinion about the history of segregation in our country and what was necessary to deal with that, which at that time was busing, then you’re probably not ready.”
