Opinion
President Joe Biden suggested that congressional Republicans today are “worse” than segregationists, particularly Strom Thurmond, lamenting that in the past he could at least work with the other guys.
Biden’s comments are an indication that he intends to muddy his campaign with the same racial tactics he used in the last presidential election. But they also gloss over the fact that the President has repeatedly spoken fondly of working with those same segregationists over the years.
The comments surfaced at a fundraiser in San Francisco on Wednesday.
“I’ve been a senator since ’72. I’ve served with real racists. I’ve served with Strom Thurmond,” Biden told those in attendance. “But guess what? These guys are worse. These guys do not believe in basic democratic principles.”
The President added that Thurmond did “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 Recalls His Time Working With Segregationists
The takeaway here isn’t so much that President Biden would be reprehensible enough to call his political adversaries “worse” than segregationists.
This is, after all, the same man who said “you ain’t black” if you don’t vote for him, and once warned black Americans that the exceedingly tame Mitt Romney was going to put them all “back in chains.”
The takeaway here is that the sitting President is once again waxing nostalgic about the old days of working with his pals – Thurmond and the segregationists. And he’ll get a pass for it.
Biden, you may recall, led into the 2020 election by speaking of the bygone era regarding pro-segregation Senators James O. Eastland and Herman Talmadge. Eastland, he said, “never called me ‘boy,’ he always called me ‘son.’”
While Biden is busy casting Republicans as “worse” than segregationists, he has praised the late Senator Robert Byrd, a one-time top officer in the Ku Klux Klan as “a very close friend of mine, one of my mentors.”
Of Thurmond, Biden has spoken warmly of him time and time again as “one of my closest friends” and championed him as someone who believed in America’s diversity.
RELATED: Biden Compares Trump to KKK in Sermon to Black Church
The hypocrisy is rich, not just with Biden’s past comments about segregationists specifically, but his extensive history of racist remarks. The President’s past is a dark one, far darker than anything in Donald Trump’s closet.
And yet somehow, some way, he is heralded as a champion of racial causes.
Early on in his Senate career, Biden worried that de-segregation would cause his children to grow up “in a racial jungle.”
The President very famously described Barack Obama in patronizing terms, calling him “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”
Joe Biden on Barack Obama: “You got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” pic.twitter.com/h81eGxY4YD
— ForAmerica (@ForAmerica) June 22, 2020
President Biden also once bragged about receiving an award from George Wallace, said Delaware was on the South’s side in the Civil War, and boasted that he came from the same “slave state.”
Biden’s racist comments span decades.
The media barely mentions them, but Joe Biden has a long history of racist comments.
14 years ago today, Biden said: “You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m 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 boy.”
Biden refers to Democrat Wes Moore — Maryland’s first Black governor — as “boy.” 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 we fought like hell — Teddy Kennedy and Eastland would rip into each other on the floor and then go have 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 — as strange as it sounds — civility.”
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