Biden's past working relationship with a segregationist senator comes to the forefront

[melman]

Joe Biden was a freshman senator, the youngest member of the august body, when he reached out to an older colleague for help on one of his early legislative proposals: The courts were ordering racially segregated school districts to bus children to create more integrated classrooms, a practice Biden opposed and wanted to change.

“I want you to know that I very much appreciate your help during this week’s Committee meeting in attempting to bring my antibusing legislation to a vote,” Biden wrote on June 30, 1977.

The recipient of Biden’s entreaty was Sen. James O. Eastland, at the time a well-known segregationist who had called blacks “an inferior race” and once vowed to prevent blacks and whites from eating together in Washington. The exchange, revealed in a series of letters, offers a new glimpse into an old relationship that erupted this week as a major controversy for Biden’s presidential campaign.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tensions-ripple-through-biden-campaign-as-his-past-working-relationship-with-a-segregationist-senator-comes-to-the-forefront/2019/06/20/2518afe6-9394-11e9-b570-6416efdc0803_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.8dc767916dba

[we can do it]

1. John Lewis is ok with it. End of divisive discussion.

[hlthe2b]

3. Exactly. His and those who fought segregation and for civil rights with him

are the opinions that matter most to me.

[joshcryer]

12. As if anyone respects John Lewis these days.

His support for Hillary was absolutely trashed to the core. As it will be here.

[Thekaspervote]

20. As is James Clyburn

[we can do it]

22. 👍🏽

[Sunsky]

47. I find this statement insulting as an African American

John Lewis is highly respected, however John Lewis doesn't speak for the entire African American community. He is one man. Therefore, his take on any matter does not end a discussion. I understand the sentiment Lewis was trying to convey. However, working with opposing ideologues for the greater good, is totally different from what Biden did with Eastland. Unless we should now think anti busing was a good measure for the enhancement of race relations.
Instead of fighting with Booker, I would love to here present day Biden critique his past stance on busing. All I'm hearing are excuses. I also, do not believe Biden is a racist and I do think Booker has overblown this issue.

[SouthernProgressive]

2. I'm very glad people aren't bright enough to see how this is going to help Biden. NT

[stonecutter357]

4. John Lewis backs Biden:

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1287159636

[melman]

5. More letters

https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/joe-biden-s-letters-to-segregationist-sen-james-o-eastland/705b015f-bd0a-4d7d-84e5-88960d5667a7/?utm_term=.2aa2b67013ce

[LibFarmer]

11. This is making Sanders look from bad to worse

Such divisive propaganda will not work this time.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

15. Lol. The Washington Post is now the Sanders campaign?

[Gothmog]

24. Civil rights icon John Lewis backs Biden, says segregationist comments were not offensive

Link to tweet

[LibFarmer]

29. Reporters report stories.

Campaign's henchmen feed stories to their buddy reporters to report, including documents and where to find those documents for corroboration.

That is how a sausage is made!

[Hassin Bin Sober]

34. Lol @ henchmen. One of my favorite words.

It’s so old school.

That being said, these docs were all over the net months ago. Probably why his aides, errrr uh henchmen, begged him to stop bragging about his relationship with the dude.

[melman]

18. Does he run the Washington Post now?

Fascinating.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

35. No, but his henchmen do!

[melman]

38. Clearly

and you can tell by all the positive coverage he gets there.

[we can do it]

21. BS, divisive as usual.

[Gothmog]

23. Rep. John Lewis with a powerful defense of @JoeBiden: "I don't think the remarks are offensive.

.

Link to tweet

[Politicub]

6. This is like a form letter

I’m sure Biden and everyone else patted each other on the back and sent meaningless notes to one another as a form of etiquette. There’s no controversy to be found in this note.

[melman]

14. from the article

"Biden on Wednesday night described his relationship with Eastland as one he “had to put up with.” He said of his relationships with Eastland and another staunch segregationist and southern Democrat, Sen. Herman Talmadge of Georgia, that “the fact of the matter is that we were able to do it because we were able to win — we were able to beat them on everything they stood for.”

But the letters show a different type of relationship, one in which they were aligned on a legislative issue."





https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tensions-ripple-through-biden-campaign-as-his-past-working-relationship-with-a-segregationist-senator-comes-to-the-forefront/2019/06/20/2518afe6-9394-11e9-b570-6416efdc0803_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.10b2761c59b8

[wyldwolf]

7. You know who else opposed busing kids to achieve integration in the 70s?

[BootinUp]

45. Lol. Nt

[Turin_C3PO]

8. Go Joe!

[msongs]

9. lbj won his senate seat running as an anti-laobr anti civil rights guy in 1948. he changed nt

[LibFarmer]

10. David Sirota and his propaganda machine nt

[SouthernProgressive]

13. Do you know what Sanders was doing during this time?

"A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees, a woman tied up, a woman abused."
A woman enjoys intercourse with her man — as she fantasizes being raped by 3 men simultaneously."
The man and woman get dressed up on Sunday — and go to Church, or maybe to their 'revolutionary' political meeting."

Writing and publishing rape fantasies. I am not shitting you. This is what Sanders was doing during this period yet you never hear about it.

[Fresh_Start]

28. +1 nt

nt

[LibFarmer]

30. Well published essays

One can find them on google.

[Skya Rhen]

32. Mr. Pure and Sanctimonious... This is truly disgusting - shows how much respect he has for women.

[emulatorloo]

16. John Lewis is the expert as far as I am concerned. Not the twitterverse, not the msm

Melman, do you have any positive threads yet? We really want to hear good stuff about from you about your favorite candidates.

It may be popular in the press and the twittersphere to try to damage and destroy Warren and Biden right now.

But honestly the press and twitter have that nasty business covered.

They wanna make this a “Thing” out of this for Biden and they want to smear Left liberal Warren as a moderate ‘puppet of the establishment’.

Both of those ‘topics’ are fake will be dead and gone in a day or so.



So tell us good things about who you like! That’s not a fad, it is exactly what DU needs right now. The debates are coming up and lots of us are ready to decide.

[Gothmog]

26. Congressman John Lewis is indeed a national treasure

This is a major endorsement. I was at the National Convention when the sanders delegates engaged in a planned stunt of booing Congressman John Lewis. The Clinton campaign had a great "whipping infrastructure" and my whip warned me of this stunt 20 to 30 minutes in advance. According to my whip, sanders was asked to stop this planned stunt and declined.

I have been privileged to hear Congressman John Lewis tell his "preaching to chickens" story four times in person

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

This is a major endorsement

[emulatorloo]

17. Btw, African American South Carolinians weigh in on Biden's comments (Report by CNN's Martin Savidge

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287159368

Martin Savidge: "Everybody we talked to said that Joe Biden's words did not change their opinion of him..."

Looks like this just isn’t going to be a ‘thing’.

Def time for some positive posts about the candidates you support!

[Gothmog]

19. Civil rights heroes Lewis and Clyburn defend Biden

Link to tweet

[emulatorloo]

25. The Twitterverse wants this to be a 'thing'. Looks like that's not going to happen for them

Voters arent in the mood for fact-free negative attacks this Primary season. Or in the GE either.

Trying to damage and weaken our canidates isn’t cool. Everyone knows Trump’s gotta be defeated, and any of our candidates would make a great president.

[LibFarmer]

31. Another massive miscalculation by David Sirota. nt

[emulatorloo]

33. Sirota's not as "good" as he thinks he is. I like Senator Sanders, he deserves better than Sirota.

[George II]

27. I'll take the word of John Lewis any day, but some here keep trying hard to tear Biden down.

Remember, Biden was only 34 years old at that time and was in the Senate for only four years.

Link to tweet

By the way, I know you're "undecided" ( ) but in 1974 BS was against busing, too. But he wasn't in much of a position to do anything about it in the Senate at the time, he was still a member of the Liberty Union Party in Vermont:

Link to tweet

[NYMinute]

37. BS was also big on writing essays back then. nt

[melman]

39. "By the way, I know you're "undecided""

Yeah I actually am undecided.

Are you suggesting I'm not? If so, please explain how it is that you would know.

[emulatorloo]

42. I believe you are undecided, because you don't post positive threads about any candidates.

Only negative threads and posts.

If you were decided, you’d no doubt be lifting up candidates.

I’m undecided too but I try to say positive things about all of our candidates. They all want to do the right thing by the 99%. The all want to lift up the most vulnerable in our society. They all want to protect the environment. They all want to undo the damage Trump has done to our country.

And any one of them can and would acheive those things, including Biden and Senator Warren. As I said before it is very popular on the twitterverse to try to “destroy” those two.

Lift somebody up! You are a thoughtful guy and a very capable writer. Show us the wonderful constructive things you have to say!

[melman]

46. Interesting

You say you think I'm undecided but this post here indicates you think I'm a Sanders supporter.



Also, if all I post is negative awful stuff how do you know I'm such a thoughtful guy?

[emulatorloo]

48. Not sure why you think that post has anything to do with you?

It doesn’t.

I’m addressing another DU’er specifically about how David Sirota isn’t doing the best job he can to promote Senator Sanders’ candidacy.

The post is not related to you. I take your word that you are undecided and I defending you against someone who insinuated you were not undecided.

“Also, if all I post is negative awful stuff how do you know I'm such a thoughtful guy?”

Oh Mehman, what a terrible thing to say about yourself. You aren’t “awful” and clearly you are passionate about our core progressive values.


Your posts do seem to be mostly negative, but I don’t believe you are a negative person.. And I see tons of potential in you to do something better and bigger to help a Democrat candidate win.

Because I know you are passionate and your heart is in the right place for getting our country
back on track!

Just try to say something good about one of our candidates. You’ll probably find it very satisfying.

Have a great weekend.

[NYMinute]

36. Why are Sanders' supporters

beating this almost dead horse? They must know that this is divisive and didn't work for Sanders in 2016.

[George II]

40. Not much left in the campaign.

[emulatorloo]

41. Certainly won't help Senator Sanders. Bernie is a strong candidate. I hope his team will highlight

his strengths, because he has a lot of them.

Attempting to paint Biden as a ‘segregationist’ and Warren as a ‘moderate tool of the establishment’ ain’t gonna work. Voters know better.

I can’t imagine Bernie likes this, he signed a pledge that said no negative campaigning.

[NYMinute]

43. I am not so sure

I can’t imagine Bernie likes this, he signed a pledge that said no negative campaigning.

He is the one who hired David Sirota, Brihana Joy-Grey and Nina Turner. He knew what he was doing. The pledge was disingenuous.

[BootinUp]

44. Joe Biden has bought too many sets of sheets!!

I bet I know what he’s doing wth them!