Rep Bobby Rush slammed Joe Biden for his praise of segregationists, saying that Biden is totally ignorant of the Black experience.
This goes against Democratic leaders in Congress, who have warned against piling onto Joe Biden as he is their best hope of capturing the White House in 2020, which should tell you how bad all 24 candidates truly are. It’s not that Biden is a good candidate, it’s because the rest are train wrecks that have already happened. With so many Black candidates running, they may have trouble with Democrats of color.
Rush says it is surprising that none of Obama rubbed off on him in 8 years.
The Illinois Democrat told Politico:
You would think that after eight years of serving as Vice President under President Obama, Biden would get it, that his frame of reference would be more audacious for the future and less on the obvious incrementalism of the past. With his statement he has demonstrated that he is wholly out of touch and woefully ignorant of the nuances of the black American experience and that is, in itself, beyond disappointing.
Rush is one of the only members of the CBC to come out and denounce Biden for praisingthe “civility” of two segregationist Democrats, Herman Talmadge (D-GA) and James Eastland (D-MS), he served with in the U.S. Senate. Biden made the remarks at a fundraiser in New York City on Tuesday and has remained defiant in the face of mountingcontroversy.
Other members of the CBC have been less willing to take the former vice president to task for his comments.
“I don’t think the remarks are offensive,” Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), another former civil rights activist, told reporters outside the Capitol on Friday.
“During the height of the civil rights movement, we worked with people and got to know people that were members of the Klan, people who opposed us, even people who beat us, and arrested us and jailed us.”