WASHINGTON (AP) — Kamala (KAH'-mah-lah) Harris spoke slowly but bluntly as she stared at Joe Biden, then began treating him as a hostile witness.
The former prosecutor turned California senator started by saying she didn't think the former vice president "was a racist."
But she criticized him for recently "defending segregationists" in the Senate and for once opposing mandatory busing of students to desegregated public schools.
Harris described a young girl in the 1970s who boarded such buses before dramatically offering, "That little girl was me."
The moment was as powerful as it was unexpected.
Biden entered back-to-back nights of presidential debates in Miami as the leading Democratic candidate. Harris showed promise but had not made much of a mark lately.
That all changed Thursday.
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This story has been corrected to show Harris is a former prosecutor, not a former federal prosecutor.