Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker is planning on continuing the offensive against opponent Joe Biden in front of African American voters.
According to Bloomberg, the New Jersey senator plans to question Joe Biden’s “electability” at the National Urban League conference in Indianapolis on Thursday. Calling it “easy” to call President Trump racist, Booker’s prepared remarks argue it’s important to look at what Biden is doing to “address structural inequality and institutional racism throughout [his] life.”
“Don’t tell us you’re going to be a champion for our communities when you become president if you haven’t been a champion already,” they read.
Booker joins other Democrats who have criticized the former vice president’s civil rights and criminal justice record and plans to attempt to undermine the idea that Biden is the most electable candidate in the 2020 race.
“Electability” has come to refer to a 2020 candidate’s ability to appeal to moderates, which includes convincing some who may vote for Trump to instead vote for the Democratic nominee. So far, Biden appears best situated to defeat Trump, according to the latest polls.
However, many have attacked Biden by claiming he is not the most electable.
Jemele Hill, a columnist for the Atlantic, wrote that Trump was able to convince democrats that Biden was electable, and that it was taking away from candidates who had “best and most progressive” ideas.
If you vote based off electability you are being complicit in the same reasons that got everybody here. The system will never correct itself if there’s always a reward for lesser-qualified people
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) June 6, 2019
Fellow Democratic contender Sen. Kamala Harris openly attacked Biden during the party’s the first round of debates for his record on busing for African American communities. The incident came after a back-and-forth between Booker and Biden over the latter’s past work with segregationist senators.
On Wednesday, Booker renewed his attacks against Biden, calling him the “architect of mass incarceration.” In a tweet, he also wrote in apparent reference to Biden that he “created the system” and that a new group will “dismantle it.”
It’s not enough to tell us what you’re going to do for our communities, show us what you’ve done for the last 40 years. You created this system. We’ll dismantle it.
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) July 23, 2019
At the NAACP conference, Biden fired back, attacking Booker’s tenure as mayor of Newark, New Jersey and the poor policing practices that existed under his leadership.
“His police department was stopping and frisking,” African American men, Biden said, adding that the Justice Department had to intervene.
Booker has not officially commented on the prepared remarks for the National Urban League Conference, a nonpartisan civil rights organization which was created to fight against discriminatory housing practices against African Americans.
