After Team Biden seemingly tried to end an interview on The Breakfast Club, radio host Charlamagne tha God told former Vice President Joe Biden that he still had more questions for him. In response, Biden told Charlamagne that anyone who would consider voting for President Trump wasn’t actually black.
Team Biden is now defending the remarks.
In a tweet on Friday morning, Symone Sanders, a senior advisor to the Biden campaign, said that Biden has a record of “fighting alongside and for the African American community.” Andrew Bates, rapid response director for the campaign, retweeted the statement and Sanders added that Biden’s remarks were actually made “in jest.”
“Let’s be clear about what the VP was saying: he was making the distinction that he would put his record with the African American community up against Trump’s any day. Period,” said Sanders.
The comments made at the end of the Breakfast Club interview were in jest, but let’s be clear about what the VP was saying: he was making the distinction that he would put his record with the African American community up against Trump’s any day. Period.
— Symone D. Sanders (@SymoneDSanders) May 22, 2020
A partial transcript of the exchange can be seen below:
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Thanks so much, that’s really our time I apologize.
CHARLAMAGNE: You can’t do that to black media.
BIDEN: I can do that to white media and black media because my wife has to go on at 6 o’clock. Uh oh, I’m in trouble.
CHARLAMAGNE: Listen, you gotta come see us when you come to New York VP Biden. It’s a long way until November, we got more questions.
BIDEN: You got more questions — well I’ll tell you, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.
CHARLAMAGNE: It don’t have nothing to do with Trump. It has to do with the fact I want something for my community.
Retweet if you think this sounds racist AF!!!
Imagine if Donald Trump said this… https://t.co/cyrzWWgmaJ
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 22, 2020
During the 2012 presidential campaign, then-Vice President Joe Biden told a crowd of about 800 people that Republican candidate Mitt Romney would “unchain Wall Street” and put “y’all back in chains,” according to CBS News.
A spokesperson for the Romney campaign at the time said that the VP’s remarks were not “acceptable in our political discourse and demonstrate yet again that the Obama campaign will say and do anything to win this election.”
Stephanie Cutter, deputy manager for the Obama campaign, said the Romney campaign was creating “faux outrage” over the remarks, and that nothing was wrong with the comments because Biden made them in the context of Wall Street, reports the news agency.
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