Kirsten Gillibrand has staked out women’s reproductive rights as her banner policy niche in her run for the presidency. She may be wagering that this will be the key issue for the most reliable Democratic primary voters, women. She is not polling well in these early stages, due in large part for her involvement in the resignation of Al Franken. She needs a breakout moment to even continue and in the debate Thursday the senator from New York May have tipped her hand on where she will be going in the next round. She alluded to a discrepancy between what has been said publicly on the topic of abortion rights and what has taken place behind congressional “closed doors”.
Joe Biden has a controversial trail of comments on this topic and he will be questioned about them. For example, in a 1974 interview in Washatonian Magazine he said, “I believe Roe v. Wade went too far” and “I don’t believe a woman has the sole right to say what happens to her body”. When the Affordable Care Act was being crafted, Biden arguged for less accommodations for contraception to be part of the new law.
More can be found on his vulnerability surrounding abortion rights in a 2015 Mother Jones piece, that even then questioned if Biden could survive on on this issue if he ever ran for president. Democratic voters are most interested in establishing who can best beat Donald Trump. These debates are also about vetting and exposing any vulnerabilities that will surely be exploited by Republicans in the general election. When a candidate runs for president, they sign on to this process.
Biden’s history on civil rights was called in to question by Kamala Harris in the last debate and his campaign has subsequently complained about what they saw as an unnecessary attack, saying it was “exactly what Donald Trump wants”. NPR reported yesterday on archived interview transcripts from the 1970s which revealed Biden may have favored a constitutional amendment to ban busing for the purposes of desegregation if it couldn’t be ended legislatively. The history of his involvement with segregationist and out right racist senators like James Eastland-MS and Jesse Helms-NC went beyond just cordiality. He agreed with them, referring to the use of busing to help integrate schools as a “liberal train wreck”. In light of the truth of his antipathy toward it’s use, one might argue that’s he be inclined to thank Senator Harris for her discretion. This is not the last time he will be confronted on this and Cory Booker is probably not going to be as deferential should he and Biden be on the same stage.
As we saw by her lack of reticence to call out the then very popular Senator Al Franken surrounding sexual assault allegations, Kirsten Gillibrand has shown that she will not hold her powder when she sees an opportunity to chastise fellow Democrats on hot button issues related to women’s rights. She surely noticed the positive attention and potential bump Kamala Harris got following her debate performance Thursday night. That she offered up a slight heads up as to what’s to come, Joe Biden may want to prepare better to defend his history on a women’s right to choose than he did on race relations.
If he thinks he had a rough first debate night, Senator Gillbrand may be there to apply the coup de grace.