First black female senator calls Kamala Harris' attack on Joe Biden 'sad': 'Her ambition got it wrong'

Sen. Kamala Harris may have seen a boost in the polls after her direct attack on Joe Biden during the Democratic presidential debate last week, but her questioning of Biden's civil rights credentials isn't sitting well with everyone, Politico reported.

Carol Moseley Braun, the first black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate, said Harris made the wrong move by going after Biden the way she did.

"We can be proud of her nonetheless, but her ambition got it wrong about Joe," Braun said. "He is about the best there is. For her to take that tack is sad."

Braun represented Illinois in the U.S. Senate from 1993 until 1999.

During the Thursday debate, Harris put the heat on Biden by expressing personal hurt over his comments about being civil with segregationist Democrats while in the Senate, and his stance against federally enforced busing to desegregate school districts.

Harris faces debate backlash

The Politico report cites a number of Biden supporters and other Democrats who believe the attack on Biden will ultimately work against Harris, and that it has eliminated her chance of being on a "dream ticket' with the former vice president.

"It's going to bite her in the ass," one supporter told Politico. "Very early on there was buzz ... Biden-Kamala is the dream ticket, the best of both worlds. ... That s*** ain't happening."

Another criticism of Harris' offensive against Biden is that it was too staged, as evidenced by the fact that the Harris campaign was selling T-shirts based on the debate moment the next day. Harris raised more than $2 million in the 24 hours after the debate.

"Couldn't they at least pretend that it was semi-organic?" a supporter said to Politico.

Still, the numbers are in Harris' favor so far after the debate. She made a huge jump to pull within 5 points of Biden in a new CNN poll.