Former Vice President Joe Biden, who entered the 2020 presidential race on Thursday, has a history in politics stretching back 50 years, when he was elected to New Castle County Council in Delaware.
Rival candidates have been keeping their power dry until his declaration but view Biden’s record, stretching back to his being first elected to the United States Senate in 1972, and through two unsuccessful presidential campaigns in 1988 and 2008, as full of opportunities for attack.
Biden, 76, sits at top of early presidential polls – in part, at least, due to name recognition. will have to answer for utterances and policy positions that his Democratic opponents will try to use against him to erode his popularity among key party voting blocs.
Race, gay rights and women’s rights are among his vulnerabilities:
Segregation is a matter of ‘black pride’
In the 1970s, Biden opposed busing black students to desegregate schools. In addition to sponsoring anti-busing legislation, he rationalized his opposition by calling it antithetical to “black pride.”
“I think the concept of busing … that we are going to integrate people so that they all have the same access and they learn to grow up with one another and all the rest, is a rejection of the whole movement of black pride,” Biden said in 1975. He called the desegregation efforts “a rejection of the entire black awareness concept, where black is beautiful, black culture should be studied; and the cultural awareness of the importance of their own identity, their own individuality.”
Gay security risk
In 1973, Biden worried that gay people in government could be security risks.
“My gut reaction,” Biden told his neighbors at an informal meeting, “is that they [homosexuals] are security risks, but I must admit I haven’t given this much thought … I’ll be darned!”
The Morning News, a Wilmington, Del.-based newspaper, reported his comments.
Biden is now an advocate for gay rights. In 2012 during a “Meet the Press” interview, he came out in support of same-sex marriage, even before Barack Obama publicly supported it — a move that some suspected was not coordinated with his boss, the then-President Obama.
Questioning of Anita Hill
During Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ 1991 confirmation hearings, Anita Hill detailed before the Senate Judiciary Committee allegations of workplace sexual harassment by Thomas. Biden, the chairman of the committee, faced criticism for allowing Republicans to vigorously attack her.
Biden has apologized for his role in permitting the Republican attacks, but he also posed some questions that called into question his sensitivity to the issue of harassment.
At one point, Biden asked Hill, “What was the most embarrassing of all the incidences that you have alleged?” He also asked her recount where each of the alleged instances occurred, setting a skeptical tone for the hearing.
Hill said in a 2014 interview that Biden did “a disservice to me, a disservice more importantly, to the public,” in part by neglecting to call on experts to explain sexual harassment.
Indian Americans and 7-Eleven
In June 2006, when Biden was still considering his 2008 presidential bid, he faced criticism for comments about Indian Americans.
“I’ve had a great relationship. In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking,” Biden said while shaking an Indian-American man’s hand at event captured by the C-SPAN series “Road to the White House.”
Biden later said that his comment was meant as a compliment and his spokeswoman said that he was trying to highlight the “vibrancy of the Indian-American community.”
Years later, during a 2012 speech in New Hampshire, Biden began to imitate an Indian accent, before catching himself, while talking about call center jobs.
Articulate, clean Obama
When evaluating the field of 2008 Democratic presidential candidates just before he was set to announce his own candidacy, Biden called then-Sen. Barack Obama an “African American who is articulate.”
“You got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man,” Biden told the New York Observer in January 2007.
Biden said he regretted any offense the quote caused. Obama responded by saying that he was not offended by Biden’s comments, but called them “historically inaccurate.”
“African-American presidential candidates like Jesse Jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton gave a voice to many important issues through their campaigns, and no one would call them inarticulate,” Obama said.
Jokes about touching women
More than eight women came forward near the beginning of April detailing experiences of uncomfortable, unwanted contact from Biden, ranging from too-long hugs to a kiss on the back of the head.
Biden responded to the complaint in a video where he promised to be mindful of personal space in the future, though he did not directly apologize to the women.
In his first public appearance after the women came forward, speaking to union workers in D.C., Biden made a joke about the allegations.
“I just want you to know I had permission to hug Lonnie,” he said, referring to the man who introduced him.
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