Opinion
President Joe Biden has suggested that congressional Republicans today are “worse” than segregationists, particularly Strom Thurmond, lamenting that in the past he could have at least worked with others.
Biden’s comments indicate that he intends to tarnish his campaign with the same racial tactics used in the last presidential election. But they also gloss over the fact that the President, over the years, has repeatedly spoken fondly of working with those same segregationists.
The comments emerged Wednesday during a fundraiser in San Francisco.
«I have been a senator since ’72. I served with real racists. I served with Strom Thurmond,” Biden told those in attendance. “But guess what? These guys are worse. These guys don’t believe in fundamental democratic principles.”
The president added that Thurmond has done “terrible things,” but “at least you could work with some of these guys.”
RELATED: Biden refers to Maryland’s first black governor as ‘The Boy’
Biden fondly remembers his time working with segregationists
The conclusion here is not so much that President Biden would be reprehensible enough to call his political opponents “worse” than segregationists.
After all, this is the same man who said “you’re not black” if you don’t vote for him, and once warned black Americans that the extremely docile Mitt Romney would put them all “in chains.”
The bottom line here is that the sitting president is once again getting nostalgic for the old days when he worked with his friends: Thurmond and the segregationists. And he will get a pass.
Biden, you may recall, led the 2020 election by talking about the bygone era regarding pro-segregation Senators James O. Eastland and Herman Talmadge. Eastland, she said, “he never called me ‘boy,’ he always called me ‘son.'”
While Biden is busy calling Republicans “worse” than segregationists, he praised the late Sen. Robert Byrd, once a top Ku Klux Klan official as “a dear friend of mine, one of my mentors.”
Of Thurmond, Biden repeatedly spoke of him warmly as “one of my closest friends” and championed him as someone who believed in the diversity of America.
RELATED: Biden compares Trump to KKK in sermon to Black Church
The hypocrisy abounds, not only with Biden’s past comments specifically about segregationists, but with his long history of racist comments. The president’s past is dark, much darker than anything in Donald Trump’s closet.
Yet, somehow, he is hailed as a champion of racial causes.
Early in his Senate career, Biden feared that desegregation would cause his children to grow up “in a racial jungle.”
The president very famously described Barack Obama in condescending terms, calling him “the first mainstream African American who is eloquent, bright, clean and a good-looking guy.”
Joe Biden on Barack Obama: “We have the first mainstream African American who is eloquent, bright, clean and a nice guy.” pic.twitter.com/h81eGxY4YD
— ForAmerica (@ForAmerica) June 22, 2020
President Biden also once boasted that he received an award from George Wallace, said Delaware was on the South’s side in the Civil War, and boasted that he was from the same “slave state.”
Biden’s racist comments span decades.
The media barely mentions them, but Joe Biden has a long history of making racist comments.
14 years ago, Biden said: “You can’t go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin Donuts if you don’t have a slight Indian accent. I am not joking!” pic.twitter.com/FaBCUmuWLJ
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) June 18, 2020
As recently as last year, President Biden referred to Wes Moore, Maryland’s first black governor, as “the guy.”
Biden refers to Democrat Wes Moore – Maryland’s first black governor – as “guy.” pic.twitter.com/X3Mb7uUrhe
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 15, 2023
In addition to Wednesday’s comments, Biden spoke fondly of how Democrats worked with segregationists like Strom Thurmond as recently as two weeks ago.
“After fighting like hell, Teddy Kennedy and Eastland would tear each other to pieces on the floor and then go to lunch together in the Senate dining room,” he recalled. “They didn’t change their views, but they were – there was this – there was a sense of – strange as it sounds – civility.”
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