President Joe Biden seemed to indicate Friday that he prefers the company of “real segregationists” of the past to the company of modern-day Republicans. He hinted as much while reminiscing about his former days as a U.S. senator.
“You know, things have kind of changed since the days when I first got there. … I got elected when I was 29 years old, in the United States Senate, from a very modest background. And I was there for 36 years before becoming vice president,” he said.
“We always used to fight like hell, and even back in the old days when we had real segregationists like Eastland and Thurmond and all those guys. But at least we’d end up eating lunch together. Things have changed. We got to bring it back,” he said.
He made the remarks while speaking alongside Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican, at United Performance Metals, a metal manufacturer in Ohio, in promotion of the Bipartisan Innovation Act.
The bill exists precisely because Democrats and Republicans — namely Brown and Portman — have in fact been working together like in the supposed good ol’ days, and so it’s unclear why the president feels so exasperated with Congress.
It’s also unclear why the president keeps praising segregationists.
Biden slammed by 2020 rivals as ‘out of step’ with modern Dems for saying he had ‘civility’ with segregationist senators https://t.co/Y0fvjdcbxg
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) June 19, 2019
He last praised segregationists during the 2020 presidential election primaries.
“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,” he said then in regard to his former interactions with segregationists.
His Democrat primary opponents, many of whom now hold prominent positions within his administration, clapped back at the time by calling him “out of step” with contemporary Americans.
It’s past time for apologies or evolution from @JoeBiden. He repeatedly demonstrates that he is out of step with the values of the modern Democratic Party. (2/2)
— Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio) June 19, 2019
Just in — Cory Booker calls on Joe Biden to apologize for praising segregationist senators: pic.twitter.com/9UJKrZKiZG
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) June 19, 2019
Even the moderate John Delaney, who has put bipartisanship at the center of his campaign, knocks Biden: “Evoking an avowed segregationist is not the best way to make the point that we need to work together.” pic.twitter.com/ALrdsZnc2Q
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) June 19, 2019
To make matters worse, the then-Democrat presidential primary candidate refused to backtrack.
“Joe Biden has refused to apologize for remarks in which he praised the ‘civility’ of an arch-segregationist Mississippi senator he used to collaborate with,” as reported on June 19th, 2019 by Rolling Stone magazine.
“He has called on the critics of his remarks, in particular 2020 rival Cory Booker, to make amends, instead. ‘Cory should apologize. He knows better,’ Biden said. ‘I’ve not a racist bone in my body.'”
Yet Biden has an extensive history of making blatantly racist remarks.
Last year he said Latinos weren’t getting vaccinated because they were “worried that they’ll be vaccinated and deported.”
Prior to the 2020 presidential election a year earlier, he claimed that any black American who wouldn’t vote for him in the 2020 election “ain’t black.”
Later that year, he insulted black people, saying, “Unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about different things.”
Returning to the present, Biden is facing no criticism this time around from elected or appointed Democrats, likely because he’s the president, and Democrats across the board are desperate to boost, not harm, his administration.
The criticism this time is coming straight from the public.
Look:
Biden & Strom laughing about segregation before lunch at a Woolworths lunch counter. pic.twitter.com/3lzdlA8DGe
— No Visible Scars (@IamjustTerry) May 6, 2022
Great times at lunch. pic.twitter.com/U8yMKPS8dZ
— Kalûnga (@AholiabBezaleel) May 6, 2022
Yea we know all about it @joebiden pic.twitter.com/Wp4eZp5WMN
— Crypto_2021 (@Crypto8715) May 6, 2022
i’m just a girl, that wants a @POTUS who doesn’t want to be friends with segregationists and insurrectionists.
— Anne Ominous (@rustoleumlove) May 6, 2022
@POTUS sitting down with segregationists to have lunch is NOT a good thing. YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN SITTING WITH THOSE EXCLUDED. C’mon Joe, think a bit.
— April Hughes (@gldng8grl) May 6, 2022
The segregationists would eat lunch with *you* because you are white. The rich and powerful will eat lunch with *you* because you are rich and powerful. Unfortunately, none of those people, including you, will listen to the rest of us. It’s not R vs D, it’s elites vs. the rest.
— Gutter Mage (@_GutterMage) May 7, 2022
I started at a new school when I was 14, the first I attended that had a few Black students. The first day at lunch, I sat down at the table with the Black kids. I wasn’t an activist, I just didn’t know the rules. The white kids started calling me names. Them’s the good ol’ days.
— Dean Booth (@BoothDean) May 7, 2022
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