Joe Biden Refuses To Apologize For Praising Late Segregationist Senators: ‘I Haven’t A Racist Bone In My Body’
Joe Biden has refused to apologize for his remarks about two segregationist former senators whom he worked with during his early days in the Senate.
The former vice president was slammed by his fellow Democratic presidential hopefuls for invoking the name of the late politicians, who vouched for racist and divisive policies, but he refused to apologize for it, claiming “there’s not a racist bone in my body.” According to CNN, Biden was criticized by New Jersey Senator Cory Booker for claiming that it was easier to work with the opposition when he first started out in the Senate.
As reported by the BBC, during a speech in New York City on Tuesday night, Biden referenced former Mississippi senator James Eastland and former Georgia senator Herman Talmadge, both segregationists, stating that they had called him “son” back in the day, but never “boy” — a word that racist white people used when talking to black men at the time.
“I know that segregationists like the two people he was talking about through their laws and their language deeply wounded this nation and the present day manifestations of their work can still be seen in black and brown communities like the one I go home to,” Booker, who is the first African-American senator from New Jersey, told CNN on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, Biden told journalists outside a fundraising event in Maryland that Booker is the one who “should apologize” as “he knows better.” For eight years, Biden was the vice president for the first African-American president in U.S. history, Barack Obama, and he is known for fighting for racial equality throughout his decades-long career, which started in the early 1970s.
Get your popcorn, the real 2020 Democrat fight is starting:
IN THIS EPISODE: Joe Biden praised segregationist Senators.
Cory Booker said it was wrong/implied he was racist
Biden told Booker to apologize.
Booker goes on CNN to tells him to shove it. pic.twitter.com/lK02JlRXlK
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) June 20, 2019
“I’ve been involved in civil rights my whole career. Period,” the presidential candidate stated, per The Daily Mail.
Despite not issuing a public apology, Biden made sure to tell reporters that he disagreed with segregationists such as Eastland, and that was precisely the reason why he ran for Senate. He claimed the point he was making was that politicians don’t have to agree or like the people they negotiate with, but that as long as “you make the case,” you can “beat them.”
What did he mean by this? https://t.co/tZeyDWw8V8
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) June 20, 2019
This week, the 76-year-old’s campaign has been focusing on the theme of restoring civility in Washington, D.C., in an attempt to have rival politicians work with each other in a cordial manner. But the Democratic race for the White House is open, and his fellow Democrats, including Booker and Kamala Harris, will not let anything he says go unnoticed — especially now that Biden is leading in all the polls.
