2020 president front-runner Joe Biden raised eyebrows on Monday for calling President Trump the most “openly racist and divisive” president the country has ever seen.
Biden’s remarks were in response to comments Trump made both on Twitter and at an event earlier in the day about Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. He told them that if they weren’t happy in the United States, they should go back to their native country, despite only Omar having been born outside of the U.S.
“There has never been a president in American history who has been so openly racist and divisive as this man,” Biden said.
“Imagine what it says around the world. I mean, I really mean it,” he continued. “The United States has always led by the example of our power. And for this President, after what happened in Charlottesville, continuing through — where does he want them to go home, in Brooklyn? Go home to Michigan? Go home to your countries. It’s sickening. It’s embarrassing.”
The comments, while their mirror the outrage from many of his 2020 opponents, drew questions as to whether or not Trump was really the most “openly racist” president in the country’s history.
In American history? https://t.co/sMx4QWhGzD
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) July 16, 2019
Huffington Post contributor Yashar Ali quote tweeted a clip from the Hill of Biden’s remarks and added, “In American history?”
Eddie Zipperer, an opinion contributor for the Daily Caller similarly said, “Probably a bit of an overreach given that several Presidents were actual slave-owners.”
Biden’s comments are not far off from the sentiment author and historian Jon Meacham’s suggested during his appearance on MSNBC Monday night.
“'[Trump} has joined Andrew Johnson as the most racist president in American history.’ Johnson, in a state message, said that African-Americans were incapable of self-government and relapsed into barbarism if they won’t closely supervised,” he said.
Imma let you finish but Woodrow Wilson was the most racist president of all time https://t.co/HUEG6bJzjW
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) July 16, 2019
In response to Meacham’s comments, conservative pundit Ben Shapiro tweeted, “Imma let you finish but Woodrow Wilson was the most racist president of all time.”
