Joe Biden emphasized racial issues in the United States in a Fourth of July post.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee released an Independence Day message video on social media focused on racial issues, lauding the creed written in the Declaration of Independence, though asserting the U.S. has never lived up to its ideals.
“Our nation was founded on a simple idea: We’re all created equal. We’ve never lived up to it — but we’ve never stopped trying. This Independence Day, let’s not just celebrate those words, let’s commit to finally fulfill them. Happy #FourthOfJuly,” Biden said in a caption of the video on Saturday.
In the message, the former vice president made the case that his election to the presidency would give the country the opportunity “rip the roots of systemic racism out of this country.”
Our nation was founded on a simple idea: We’re all created equal. We’ve never lived up to it — but we’ve never stopped trying. This Independence Day, let’s not just celebrate those words, let’s commit to finally fulfill them. Happy #FourthOfJuly! pic.twitter.com/1WrATlx8Xl
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 4, 2020
Separately, in an opinion article published by NBC News on Saturday, Biden blamed President Trump for division in the country, accusing him of going after the “guardrails of our democracy: the free press, the courts, and our fundamental belief that no one in America — not even the president — is above the law.”
“As president, I will take immediate action to reverse the damage Donald Trump has done to our core democratic rights and institutions,” he wrote. “That starts by protecting our most sacred right: the right to vote.”
Biden, who once forgot the Declaration of Independence on the campaign trail, has a history of gaffes and insensitive statements on racial issues. In May, Biden said on the radio show The Breakfast Club that black voters “ain’t black” if they choose to support President Trump over him in the 2020 general election.
Last year, Biden told his supporters in Iowa that “poor kids” were just as clever and talented as “white kids,” creating an unnecessary racial distinction that brought him scrutiny.
In 2012, Biden told a largely black audience in Virginia during President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign that Republican candidate Mitt Romney was “going to put you all back in chains” should he win the election. And prior to Obama’s election to the White House, Biden called Obama the “first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”
“I mean, that’s a storybook, man,” Biden said at the time.
