Kamala Harris Goes After Joe Biden, Finds Herself on Defensive in Second Debate

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris walked onstage Wednesday night for her second presidential debate with a lot of pressure and high expectations hanging over her head — and she mostly delivered.

Harris, who is viewed as one of a few frontrunners in the crowded Democratic field, found herself at the center of the stage  alongside former Vice President Joe Biden — and at the center of many attacks from her fellow Democrats on issues ranging from health care to her record as a prosecutor.

Biden, especially, came out swinging at Harris, a turnaround from his lackluster response to her attacks in the first debate in June.

"The senator has had several plans," Biden said, referring to Harris' flip-flopping on whether she supports eliminating private insurance coverage. “You can't beat Donald Trump with double-talk on this.”

Harris — whose standout performance during the first debate boosted her poll numbers and breathed life into her campaign — appeared a bit nervous as the night began, but seemed to pick up steam as the debate wore on.

After greeting Biden casually — "Hey, Joe," she said, with him responding, "Go easy on me, kid" — Harris quickly pivoted to attacking the vice president.

The first portion of the debate focused heavily on health care, with Biden and Harris sparring over their competing proposals. But neither candidate seemed as fluent talking about the complicated policy issue as Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders did Tuesday night.

Still, Harris did land some punches. She unveiled her own health care plan this week — a proposal she calls "Medicare for All," but that would still include private insurers — and spent a significant amount of time attacking Biden for his more modest proposal, which would keep the current health care structure in place but let people buy into a public option.

"Your plan does not cover everyone in America — by your staff's, and everyone's, definition — 10 million people will not have access to health care," Harris told Biden. "In 2018, in America, for a Democrat to be running on a health care plan that doesn't cover everyone is without excuse."

Harris, as she did in the last debate, also sought to rise above the rest of the field as they bickered. This time, it was during the health care debate when she told the other candidates, "We cannot keep going with the Republican talking points on this. You gotta stop."

Biden pushed back: "This is not a Republican talking point; Republicans are trying to kill Obamacare."

Harris also found herself on the defensive over her record as a prosecutor and California attorney general, with both Biden and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard taking her to task over problems that arose during her tenure — like a drug lab scandal that resulted in hundreds of criminal cases being dismissed.

But it was Gabbard's accusation that Harris "blocked evidence from being revealed" in a death row case — an apparent reference to the Kevin Cooper appeals — that led the California senator to push back.

Harris said she has been opposed to the death penalty her entire career.

"That is my background, that is my work. I am proud of it. I think you can judge people by when they are under fire and it’s not about some fancy opinion on a stage, but when they’re in the position to actually make a decision — what do they do," she said. "When I was in the position of having to decide whether or not to seek a death penalty on cases I prosecuted, I made a very difficult decision that was not popular to not seek the death penalty."

Overall, Harris had a good night, but not a stellar one that could significantly change the tenor of the race in any significant way.