In an interview with Politico, Rev. Jesse Jackson undermined the defense former VP Joe Biden has been making about his longstanding opposition to busing.
Jackson said Sen. Kamala Harris had exposed Biden during the first Democrat debate as being “on the states’ rights side of history”—a position he claimed “cannot stand the test of time.” He said Biden’s defense that he never opposed “voluntary busing” missed the bigger issue of why federal agencies had to mandate school desegregation in the first place.
“He’s for voluntary busing, I’m for court-ordered busing — well, everyone’s for voluntary busing,” said Jackson. “The federal government had to order the abolition of slavery, the federal government had to order the right to vote, they had to order the desegregation of schools and jobs and contracts.”