Democratic debate: Joe Biden asks Kamala Harris to ‘go easy on me kid’ on hot mic

Former vice president came out expecting to be challenged in second debate

Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden was heard asking Kamala Harris – whom he clashed with at the party’s first debate – to “go easy” with him as they shook hands at the start of their second encounter.

As the California senator walked to the stage of the Fox Theatre in Detroit where Mr Biden was already standing having entered first, the two warmly shook hands.

But the 76-year-old former vice president was caught by a microphone saying to 53-year-old Ms Harris: “Go easy on me kid.”

Ms Harris’ appeared to respond, but her precise words were not clear. She could then be heard asking Mr Biden: “You good?’

The comment - probably intended as a joke – presaged a rapid back and forth, when Ms Harris was asked to comment on Mr Biden’s remark that her health care plan, released this week, was a “have-it-every-which-way approach”.

She said Mr Biden and his campaign had likely not read her plan, as he was describing it inaccurately.

Meanwhile, her campaign team used social media to respond to Mr Biden’s opening greeting. “Kid?” tweeted Ian Sams, Ms Harris’ spokesperson.

In her opening remarks in Detroit, Ms Harris said: “This becomes a moment we must fight for the best of who we are. We are better than this.”

In turn, Mr Biden directed his opening comments to the White House, as he highlighted the diversity on the stage.

“Mr president, this is America,” he said.

Mr Biden entered the contest expecting to be challenged by Ms Harris, and Cory Booker, in particular, after his faltering performance in the first debate in Miami last month.

In that debate, Mr Biden stumbled when confronted by Ms Harris over his record on school integration. Mr Booker in recent days has seized on Mr Biden’s decades-old support for criminal justice laws that disproportionately hurt minorities.

Additional reporting by Associated Press