Joe Biden's gaffe on segregationist senators shows why aides are keeping him away from reporters

[USALiberal]

THE BIG IDEA: Politicians say the darndest things at fundraisers. Hillary Clinton called half of Donald Trump’s supporters “a basket of deplorables.” Mitt Romney claimed 47 percent of the country would never vote for him because they are “dependent upon government.” Barack Obama said “bitter” working-class people in the Rust Belt “cling to guns or religion.”

Joe Biden’s paean to a bygone era — during which he spoke wistfully about working collegially and civilly with racists to find areas of common ground — seems destined to enter this pantheon of campaign-defining gaffes. “I was in a caucus with James O. Eastland. He never called me 'boy,' he always called me ‘son,’” the 76-year-old, who served 36 years in the Senate, told donors in New York on Tuesday night.

Eastland, a Mississippi senator who owned a cotton plantation, described African Americans as an “inferior” race and warned that integration would lead to “mongrelization.” Biden also mentioned Herman Talmadge, the notorious Georgia segregationist who blockaded progress on civil rights for decades.

“You go down the list of all these guys,” he said. “Well, guess what? At least there was some civility. 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.”

This caused a firestorm on Juneteenth, the anniversary of slaves in Texas finding out they’d been freed. Some of the most vocal criticism came from the two African American senators who are challenging Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination. Cory Booker, who was 3 years old when Biden arrived in the Senate in 1973, said he should apologize. Rather than doing so, however, the former vice president doubled down last night when reporters confronted him on his way into another fundraiser.

more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2019/06/20/daily-202-joe-biden-s-gaffe-on-segregationist-senators-shows-why-aides-are-keeping-him-away-from-reporters/5d0a658ca7a0a47d87c56d5c/?utm_term=.2dd8df4ccf1f

[emulatorloo]

1. All our candidates are going to make mistakes. And the MSM is going to try to make those mistakes

a big deal. Meanwhile there is a racist Neo-Nazi enabler in the White House, who the MSM has normalized and is given a free pass on every thing he says and does.

For those reasons I take reporting like this with a huge grain of salt.

Thanks for posting the article, appreciate seeing it.

[Autumn]

2. OFFS. His aides "keeping him away from reporters" is fucking ridiculous.

It brings to mind Trumps aides keeping things away from him out of fear of what he will say or do.

[LanternWaste]

3. Let's hope Sanders' aides take a page from this playbook and do the same.

[LovingA2andMI]

4. No Joke.....

FACT: And this is a FACT - Joe Biden never got beyond the 3% mark running for POTUS prior to serving as Barack Obama's VP. Gaffes like the above one or two more times will knock him out of the top of the polls.

[Celerity]

9. I have no idea what it would take. Maybe he is absolutely teflon and nothing sticks. IF that's the

case, hopefully that means he CRUSHES Rump and has coattails so we take back the Senate.

Time will tell.

[oasis]

5. Because MSM and Biden's rivals will blow tiny shit out of proportion. nt

[delisen]

6. Don't understand the comment. Is Biden saying both sides do it?

(we don't talk to each other anymore).

Don't understand the "son" reference either. Can't imagine that Sen Eastland would have ever called Senator Biden "boy."

Hope whoever is Dem candidate will work to keep the gains we have made in the house in 2018.

Maintaining that critical mass is essential, as is combating the Russians--wish candidates would start addressing this

[oasis]

7. "No offense intended" Is what I can confidently say about Biden's comments. nt

[Gothmog]

8. According to Symone Sanders, Biden did not praise a segregationist

Link to tweet

Link to tweet