Connie Schultz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning liberal journalist married to Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, slammed Joe Biden for hailing his relationships with segregationist senators as examples of “civility.”
Schultz said Biden’s comments show he should not replace President Trump in the White House.
“There is no punchline here, no emoji or funny meme to soften the harm of your words. That segregationist never called you ‘boy’ because you are white. If you want to boast about your relationship with a racist, you are not who we need to succeed the racist in the White House,” she tweeted Wednesday.
“We’re either allies, or we’re not,” she added, referring to what she said was the reaction to Biden’s remarks from her black friends, neighbors, and colleagues.
I add this: My first thoughts, after learning of Biden’s comments, were of my black friends, neighbors and colleagues: How would they hear this? What do they deserve to hear from us? Soon enough, they were letting me know.
We’re either allies, or we’re not.
— Connie Schultz (@ConnieSchultz) June 19, 2019
At a fundraiser in New York on Tuesday, Biden named two segregationist Democrats who served in the Senate with him in the 1970s as examples of politicians he could work with.
Biden, 76, said James O. Eastland of Mississippi “never called me boy, he called me son.” Eastland said he thought black people belonged to “an inferior race.”
Of Georgia’s Herman Talmadge, the 2020 front-runner said he was “one of the meanest guys I ever knew.” Talmadge denounced the 1954 Supreme Court decision on school desegregation and civil rights legislation.
“Well guess what? At least there was some civility. We got things done,” Biden said Tuesday. “We didn’t agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished. 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.”
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