Harris was basically saying "As the only black person on this stage..." I am entitled to an exemption from debate rules.

MADDOW:

Because of this large field of candidates not every person will be able to comment on everything but the less audience reaction there is the more time they will all get.

(APPLAUSE)

Over the course of the next hour we will hear from all of these candidates. We are going to begin this hour with Mayor Buttigieg. In the last five years civil rights activists in our country have led a national debate over race and the criminal justice system. Your community of South Bend, Indiana has recently been in uproar over an officer involved shooting. The police force in South Bend is now 6 percent black in a city that is 26 percent black. Why has that not improved over your two terms as mayor?

BUTTIGIEG:

Because I couldn’t get it done. My community is in anguish right now because of an officer involved shooting. A black man Eric Logan killed by a white officer. And I’m not allowed to take sides until the investigation comes back. The officer says he was attacked with a knife, but he didn’t have his body camera on. It’s a mess. And we’re hurting. And I could walk you through all of the things that we have done as a community—all of the steps that we took from bias training to de-escalation but it didn’t save the life of Eric Logan. And when I look into his mother’s eyes I have to face the fact and nothing that I say will bring him back. This is an issue that is facing our community and so many communities around the country. And until we move policing out from the shadow of systemic racism whatever this particular incident teaches us we will be left with the bigger problem of the fact that there is a wall of mistrust put up one racist act at a time. Not just from what has happened in the past but what’s happening around the country in the present. It threatens the well being of every community. And I am determined to bring about a day when a white person driving a vehicle and a black person driving a vehicle when they see a police officer approaching feels the exact same thing. A feeling not of fear but of safety. I’m determined to bring that day about.

MADDOW:

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

(APPLAUSE)

HICKENLOOPER:

Mayor Buttigieg, Mayor Buttigieg, if I could ask one question because I think—

MADDOW:

Governor, I’ll give you 30 seconds.

HICKENLOOPER:

I think that the question they are asking in South Bend I think across the country is why is it taking so long? We had a shooting when I first became mayor 10 years before Ferguson and the community came together and we created an office of the independent monitor—civilian oversight commission. We diversified the police force in two years. We actually did de-escalation training. I think the real question that America should be asking is why five years after Ferguson every city doesn’t have this level of police accountability?

MADDOW:

Governor Hickenlooper, thank you.

HICKENLOOPER:

We—

BUTTIGIEG:

I’ve got to respond to that. Look, we’ve taken so many steps toward police accountability that the FOP just denounced me for too much accountability. We’re obviously not there yet. And I accept responsibility for that—

(CROSSTALK)

SWALWELL:

(INAUDIBLE) you should fire the chief.

BUTTIGIEG:

So, under Indiana law this will be investigated. And there will be accountability for the officer involved.

SWALWELL:

But you’re the mayor. You should fire the chief if that’s the policy and someone died.

WILLIAMSON:

All of these issues are extremely important but there are specifics, there are symptoms. And the underlying cause has to do with deep, deep, deep realms of racial injustice. Both in our criminal justice system and in our economic system. And the democratic party should be on the side of reparations for slavery for this very reason.

(APPLAUSE)

I do not believe—I do not believe that the average American is a racist. But the average American is woefully undereducated about the history of race in the United States.

(CROSSTALK)

TODD:

Vice President Biden, we’re going to get to you. Hang on. We’re going to get—

HARRIS:

I would like to say—

MADDOW:

—Ms. Williamson, thank you very much.

BALART:

Vice President Biden, I’m going to—we’re going to get to you. Hang on. We’re going to get—

HARRIS:

—As we (INAUDIBLE) on this stage, I would like to speak—

BALART:

—I—I—

HARRIS:

—On the issue of race.

(APPLAUSE)

MADDOW:

Senator Harris—

HARRIS:

—And so, what I will say—

MADDOW:

—I will—Senator Harris, if I could—if I could preface—

HARRIS:

—Is that I agree—

MADDOW:

—This, we’ll give you 30 seconds because we’re going to come back to you on—on this again in just a moment. Go for 30 seconds.

HARRIS:

Okay. So, on the issue of race, I couldn’t agree more that this is an issue that is still not being talked about truthfully and honestly. I—there is not a black man I know, be he a relative, a friend or a coworker who has not been the subject of some form of profiling or discrimination. Growing up, my sister and I had to deal with the neighbor who told us her parents couldn’t play with us because she—because we were black. And I will say also that—that in this campaign, we’ve also heard—and I’m going to now direct this to Vice President Biden. I do not believe you are a racist and I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground.

BIDEN:

Mm-hmm.

HARRIS:

But, I also believe—and it’s personal. And I—I was actually very—it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on segregation of race in this country. And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose bussing. And you know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bussed to school every day and that little girl was me. So, I will tell you that on this subject, it cannot be an intellectual debate among democrats. We have to take it seriously. We have to act swiftly. As attorney general of California, I was very proud to put in place a—a requirement that all my special agents would wear body cameras and keep those cameras on.

(APPLAUSE)

MADDOW:

Senator Harris, thank you.

(APPLAUSE)