CNN

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is joining in on the post-debate Biden pile-on.

The 2020 Democrat spoke to CNN on Friday morning about the most memorable moment of Thursday night's debate: Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) sparring with former Vice President Joe Biden over his past opposition to busing. Biden defended his record by saying he never opposed busing but rather "busing ordered by the Department of Education."

Booker responded by saying that "anybody who knows our painful history" knows that "African-Americans in this country, and many other groups, have had to turn to the federal government to intervene because there were states that were violating" their rights.

For that reason, the New Jersey senator said that after hearing Biden talk about the issue from a states' rights perspective, "I literally leaned back in my couch and couldn't believe that one moment."

Booker also slammed Biden for "not understanding the history of the need for the federal government ... to stop states from sanctioning the kind of bigotry and bias that was so hurting African-American communities." Brendan Morrow