Joe Biden called on Cory Booker to apologize after the New Jersey senator slammed Biden for touting his work with segregationists in the Senate.
The former vice president responded to critics of his remarks on Wednesday before attending a fundraiser in Rockville, Md. Biden said he fought against the segregationists in the Senate to pass civil rights legislation. Biden ignited a firestorm on Tuesday by speaking wistfully of his relationships in the 1970s with notorious segregationists Senators James O. Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia.
“Apologize for what?” Biden said indignantly. “He knows better,” Biden added, referencing Booker’s call to apologize for the remarks. “There’s not a racist bone in my body. I’ve been involved in civil rights my whole career. Period. Period. Period.”
“Here’s the deal, I could not have disagreed with Jim Eastland more and he was a segregationist. I ran for the United States Senate because I disagreed with the views of the segregationists. There were many of them in the Senate at the time,” Biden said.
“The point I’m making is, you don’t have to agree. You don’t have to like the people in terms of their views, but you just simply make the case and you beat them. You beat them without changing the system,” Biden continued.
Biden, the leading Democratic contender to challenge President Trump in 2020, called out Booker after a reporter asked if he planned to apologize.
“Cory should apologize. He knows better. There’s not a racist bone in my body. I’ve been involved in civil rights my whole career. Period,” Biden said.
BREAKING: @JoeBiden responds to Dem rival criticism on comments re: “some civility” w/segregationist senators: “Apologize for what? @CoryBooker should apologize” @CBSNews (w/@JuliaCherner) pic.twitter.com/zFaEXpSNXM
— Bo Erickson (@BoKnowsNews) June 19, 2019
Shortly afterward, Booker, appearing on CNN, appeared dumbfounded by Biden’s insistence that it was the New Jersey senator who should say sorry. It was, Booker said, “so insulting and so missing the larger point.”
Booker had issued a statement rebuking Biden earlier Wednesday, saying Biden’s “relationships with proud segregationists are not the model for how we make America a safer and more inclusive place for black people, and for everyone.”
Inside the fundraiser, Biden tried to portray himself as having opposed and defeated Eastland and Talmadge, both his fellow Democrats, though he referred to them as “Jim” and “Hermy.” He evoked the late Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts in his defense.
“He’s the guy who got me on the Judiciary Committee, we served from years and years. And we had to put up with the likes of Jim Eastland and Hermy Talmadge and all those segregationists and all of that. And the fact of the matter is that we were able to do it because we were able to win, we were able to beat them on everything they stood for.”
“We in fact detested what they stood for in terms of segregation and all the rest. And because of Teddy letting me become chairman of the Judiciary Committee in 1982, when he moved on to take on Health and Human Services, we were able to do so much. We restored the Voting Rights Act, we did it, and over time we extended it by 25 years, not just five years.”
Biden has previously said he would refrain from attacking other Democrats in the primary. At the Maryland fundraiser, he repeated that pledge.
“Thanks for letting me play in this contest. It’s going to be pretty ugly,” Biden told a crowd of about 70 supporters, according to the pool report. “But here’s the deal: I’m not going to participate.”
Booker and other 2020 candidates have attacked Biden over comments he made at a Tuesday fundraiser, Biden touted his work with Eastland, who died in 1986, and Herman Talmadge, who died in 2002. Both men were known for pushing racist policies and believing that black people are inferior.
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