Biden supporters say Harris’s attacks betray her friendship with his son

Harris’s close friendship with Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015 at age 46, is giving an unusually personal tone to the growing rivalry between Biden and Harris, which will be on display again in next week’s debate.

Harris and the younger Biden developed a bond in the early 2010s as fellow state attorneys general in California and Delaware, respectively, strategizing on cases and comparing notes as politically ambitious future Democratic stars.

That fostered a connection between Harris and the elder Biden; the former vice president endorsed her 2016 Senate run, and some Democrats saw the pair as a dream 2020 ticket. But now some in Biden’s camp consider Harris’s surprise attack, and her ongoing critique of his civil rights record, a personal breach.

“I don’t pretend to know what’s in the vice president’s head — I wasn’t surprised that someone came after him,” said one longtime friend of Beau’s who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject. “But I turned to my wife and said, ‘Beau’s flipping in his grave.’ ”