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Joe Biden is under fire for making comments that seemed like he was stomping for segregationist senators who he claimed to have worked with, despite their racist views.
—‘Why not now?’ Ta-Nehisi Coates and Danny Glover join lawmakers to debate slavery reparations—
At issue is the the 2020 presidential candidate’s comments during a fundraising stop, in which he stated that he worked with two steadfast segregationists, the late Sens. James Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia, despite their views being on opposite sides of his own.
“Well guess what? At least there was some civility. We got things done. We didn’t agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished. But today you look at the other side and you’re the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don’t talk to each other anymore,” Biden said.
Biden then followed up saying of Eastland, “he never called me boy, he always called me son.”
But he probably called plenty of Black men boy…
The former vice president has refused to apologize despite calls from political leaders like his opponent Sen. Cory Booker, saying, “There’s not a racist bone in my body,” Biden told reporters. “I’ve been involved in civil rights my whole career.”
And on Wednesday Booker said on CNN that Biden should know better.
“As a Black man in America I know the harmful and hurtful usage of the word ‘boy.’ And how it was used to dehumanize and degrade,” Booker said.
Vice President Joe Biden told me I should know better. As a Black man in America, here’s what I know: pic.twitter.com/MbbrVbi3BJ
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) June 20, 2019
But on Wednesday, Biden held his position and wrote off Booker’s call for an apology.
“Cory should apologize. He knows better,” Biden said.
Symone Sanders, Biden’s senior political strategist, took to Twitter and launched a series of tweets in Biden’s defense to swat the critics who have attacked the 2020 Presidential contender.
“.@JoeBiden did not praise a segregationist. That is a disingenuous take,” she said.
“He basically said sometimes in Congress, one has to work with terrible or down right racist folks to get things done. And then went on to say when you can’t work with them, work around them.”
.@JoeBiden did not praise a segregationist. That is a disingenuous take. He basically said sometimes in Congress, one has to work with terrible or down right racist folks to get things done. And then went on to say when you can’t work with them, work around them.
— Symone D. Sanders (@SymoneDSanders) June 19, 2019