Mark Shields:

They can have a stance if they want it. I think it's a nonstarter as an issue in 2020, Amna.

I think David makes a legitimate point, a moral point and an ethical point. I think, politically, you have a choice, especially beginning with Joe Biden. You either have converts or you have heretics in politics. You either say, that person was wrong, and therefore they're doomed to perdition and keep them away from me, or converts, those who come and join our side and are welcome and sit in the front row.

And Joe Biden's record on civil rights, I think, speaks a lot louder than the one quote from 43 years ago.

And you have a choice in politics. You can look forward or you can look backward. And I think, in 2020, this is not an issue that comes up voluntarily on the part of voters. I think David raises the question. It is next to impossible to do it.

I mean, the African-American girl who graduated from Sidwell whose father is a dentist and whose mother's a lawyer is not in the same position as somebody who is a direct lineal descendant at discrimination and servitude.

It is — what works in this country is when we include everybody in a program. And there's no question that African-Americans have suffered economically, socially and politically. But it ought to be a policy that's directed to lifting up all those who lag behind, who have been, through no fault of their own, left behind and hurt.

And I think that, in spending more money, it means an investment in city schools. There's no reason, as John McCain said, that a bad congressman should earn more than a good schoolteacher. And I think that's a good place to start.