Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders snapped at MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle during a back-and-forth Thursday about Joe Biden’s comments regarding his relationship with two segregationist senators.
The former vice president has faced heat for naming Sens. James O. Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia during a fundraising event earlier this week as two individuals he was able to work with, despite disagreeing with them.
“The more people hear about it, some are saying, ‘Well, he was applauding or celebrating that.’ That wasn’t what Joe Biden was doing,” Ruhle explained. “Joe Biden was trying to make the point that bipartisanship is necessary. He’s done so working with the deplorable of the deplorables. That’s why he gave the example of the segregationists. So why is it that you believe he has to apologize?”
Sanders stood by his previous claim that Biden should apologize, adding that, “When you’re in Congress, you work with everybody. I do. I think every member of the Senate. Every member of the House works with people who have very, very different points of view. But I don’t think you have to be touting a personal relationship with people who were very brutal segregationists who did a massive amount of —,” before being cut off.
Ruhle pushed back, “But senator, he wasn’t touting relations.”
Sanders then talked over her, exclaiming, “Okay, that’s my view on it. I’m sorry. Ma’am, I’m sorry. If you disagree with me that’s fine. That is my view.”
“Haven’t you, over a four-decade career, had to align yourself with people who don’t share your views on things to advance your causes?” Ali Velshi chimed in.
“Absolutely. Just what I said. Absolutely. I have and so has every other member of the Congress,” Sanders answered. “But one doesn’t really tout, you know, one’s personal relationships or make a virtue out of civility when it may be a necessity and not a virtue.”
Sanders was not the only presidential candidate to criticize Biden’s remarks.
Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Cory Booker of New Jersey, both of whom are black presidential candidates, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is in an interracial marriage, attacked Biden.
“You don’t joke about calling black men ‘boys.’ … Vice President 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,” Booker said in a statement Wednesday. “I’m disappointed that he hasn’t issued an immediate apology for the pain his words are dredging up for many Americans. He should.”
Biden responded defiantly arguing that there is no reason for him to apologize.
