Former Vice President Joe Biden made a bold prediction Tuesday, saying he believed Democratic Senate candidate Doug Jones would win Alabama’s special election on Dec. 12.
“When he wins this race, it’ll send ripples down the country,” Biden said while stumping for Jones at a rally in Birmingham. “I want to be clear: Don’t do it for that reason. Do it for Alabama.”
Biden’s return to the campaign trail was an opportunity to provide a character reference for Jones, who is competing against controversial Republican candidate Roy Moore for U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ old seat in the Senate.
Moore has a history of making controversial comments, once suggesting that homosexuality should be outlawed and referring to Native Americans and Asian Americans as “reds” and “yellows.” He has also promulgated the discredited theory that former president Barack Obama was not born in the U.S.
“Character is a little more than the lengthened shadow of a man. This man has cast, in his young years, a very significant shadow,” Biden said in reference to Jones’ record as a former federal prosecutor.
Jones, who is currently behind Moore in most polls, was responsible for convicting the two Klansmen behind the infamous 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing, which claimed the lives of four girls in Birmingham in 1963.
“Doug has demonstrated his courage and his absolute integrity,” Biden continued. “Doug and I have been friends for a long, long time. Doug knows Alabama. He knows your heart, and he’ll never let you down.”
