Joe Biden is a walking gaffe machine. It’s not a matter of if, it’s simply about when he’ll say something stupid and apparently that has happened.
Speaking at a fundraiser Tuesday evening the former vice president mentioned civility in the United States Senate and then went on to mention two senators in particular.
Biden reminisced about working with Democrats James O. Eastland and Herman Talmadge, both southern senators were advocates of desegregation.
Speaking about Eastland Biden said “I was in a caucus with James O. Eastland. He never called me ‘boy’; he always called me ‘son.’ Well, guess what? At least there was some civility.”
When speaking of Talmadge Biden said “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.”
Even CNN wasn’t down with Biden’s comments on the segregationist Democratic senators.
Biden's complicated past and remarks on race is catching on at CNN.
John King says: "I’m going to call it insensitive. It’s much worse than that. I don’t know what to call it except stupid."
"Those were two racist members of the United States Senate. Why?” pic.twitter.com/Q3liK7NKbd
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) June 19, 2019
A Biden campaign senior advisor was out trying to minimize the damage.
.@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
Let's be honest here, a person currently sits in the White House who has ACTUALLY praised white supremacists, refuses to acknowledge the innocence of the #exonerated5 and talks about criminal justice reform, but has yet to allocate ONE PENNY to it in his budget. Meanwhile…
— Symone D. Sanders (@SymoneDSanders) June 19, 2019
Joe Biden has been an ally in the fight for civil rights for years. I am all here for VALID CRITICISM, but suggesting that Joe Biden – the man who literally ran for office against an incumbent at 29 because of the civil rights movement, the man who…
— Symone D. Sanders (@SymoneDSanders) June 19, 2019
was at the forefront of marriage equality before it was politically popular, the man who served as President Obama's VP, the man who literally launched his 2020 campaign calling out Nazis in Charlottesville along with Trump's equivalency – suggesting he is…
— Symone D. Sanders (@SymoneDSanders) June 19, 2019
Actively praising a segregationist is just a bad take and a willfully disingenuous act.
— Symone D. Sanders (@SymoneDSanders) June 19, 2019