In 2016, a brash first-time candidate rode his disregard for liberal shibboleths and willingness to contradict media myths into the White House. Imagine if a 2024 presidential contender came along who was willing to say Democrats “in big cities” are “more immoral” than Republicans. Suppose a candidate smacked down baseless partisan attacks on the Republican Party by saying they threaten to “bring down our political system.” Try to envision a candidate with the courage to respond to claims that America’s history demands race-based wealth redistribution by saying, “I’ll be damned if I feel responsible to pay for what happened 300 years ago.” This candidate might even have the courage to say that government programs favoring one ethnic group over another have the capacity to transform non-racist Americans into racists and “fill them with hatred.”
The good news is there is such a candidate. The bad news is, it’s Joe Biden, who made all of those comments — and many, many more incendiary statements — at the outset of his political career nearly five decades ago. Biden made most of these comments during a single speech, delivered at the City Club of Cleveland on May 18, 1973.
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