Biden’s rambling answers to debate question include instructions to leave the ‘record player on at night’

The record of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on race and school desegregation once again came to the forefront during a Democratic debate, this time focusing on a comment he had made in 1975 on inequality: “I’ll be damned if I feel responsible to pay for what happened 300 years ago.”

Mr. Biden — who had been confronted in July’s debate over his record on busing in a tense exchange with Senator Kamala Harris — smiled broadly but seemed taken aback by the question from the ABC correspondent Linsey Davis on Thursday.

His response rambled, discussing a record player and invoking his current wife and his deceased wife — who both worked as teachers — then ended with a reference to a figure who had come up in an earlier, unrelated question: President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela.

The exchange began when Ms. Davis, pointing out Mr. Biden’s past comment, asked him whether he currently thinks Americans need to repair the legacy of slavery in the United States.

DAVIS: Mr. Vice President, I want to come to you and talk to you about inequality in schools and race. In a conversation about how to deal with segregation in schools back in 1975, you told a reporter, “I don’t feel responsible for the sins of my father and grandfather, I feel responsible for what the situation is today, for the sins of my own generation, and I’ll be damned if I feel responsible to pay for what happened 300 years ago.” You said that some 40 years ago. But as you stand here tonight, what responsibility do you think that Americans need to take to repair the legacy of slavery in our country?

BIDEN: Well, they have to deal with the — look, there’s institutional segregation in this country. And from the time I got involved, I started dealing with that. Redlining, banks, making sure we are in a position where — look, you talk about education. I propose that what we take the very poor schools, the Title I schools, triple the amount of money we spend from $15 to $45 billion a year. Give every single teacher a raise to the $60,000 level.

Number two, make sure that we bring in to help the teachers deal with the problems that come from home. The problems that come from home. We have one school psychologist for every 1,500 kids in America today. It’s crazy. The teachers are — I’m married to a teacher, my deceased wife is a teacher. They have every problem coming to them. Make sure that every single child does, does in fact, have 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds go to school. Not daycare, school.