Black lawmakers defended Vice President Joe Biden after the Democratic presidential candidate praised the effectiveness and “civility” of his time working with segregationists in the Senate.
The members of Congress supported Biden’s overall point that Washington politicians must do a better job of working with those they disagree with. They declined to echo the demands for an apology made by Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, a 2020 rival of Biden’s and a fellow Congressional Black Caucus member, and others. And they commended Biden’s civil rights record.
But that particular example was not viewed as Biden’s best argument that he could unify the country.
“I certainly wish that he hadn’t have said it,” said Rep. Karen Bass of California, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. “I certainly wish he wouldn’t have used that example. I think there’s a lot of other examples of where he has worked in a bipartisan fashion, but I would like to see us move on from there.”
Amid the fallout surrounding his comments, Biden met with members of the Congressional Black Caucus Thursday night for a pre-planned meeting to discuss policy priorities, according to a source.
House Majority Whip James Clyburn was invited but unable to attend the meeting with Biden and some members of the caucus in Washington, an aide told CNN.
At a fundraiser in New York on Tuesday, Biden harkened back to a time when a political opponent was not viewed as an enemy. While he and segregationist Southern Democrats like the late Sens. Herman Talmadge and James Eastland wouldn’t agree on much, “at least there was some civility,” he said.
“We got things done,” said Biden.
In recalling working with Eastland, Biden added, “He never called me boy, he always called me son.”
Biden’s remarks provoked strong criticism from his 2020 Democratic rivals. Sen. Kamala Harris of California said, “to coddle the reputations of segregationists … is misinformed and it’s wrong.” Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper told CNN, “If I had said what the vice president said, I certainly would have apologized. Segregation is just such a dark part of our history.” And Booker said Biden was “wrong” and called for an immediate apology.
On Wednesday night, Biden refused.
“Apologize for what?” Biden asked CNN when told about Booker’s call outside a fundraiser in Rockville, Maryland. “Cory should apologize. He knows better. There’s not a racist bone in my body. I’ve been involved in civil rights my whole career.”
A senior adviser said Biden has told the story “countless times.” Biden’s usual phrasing – “he never called me senator, he called me son” – is an attempt by Biden to show that Eastland didn’t give him the respect of calling him senator because Biden was so young, according to the adviser. The difference between Tuesday evening’s comments and previous iterations of the story is the use of the racially charged word “boy.”
Bass, the Congressional Black Caucus chair, said she hoped that the intraparty attacks on Biden were not a sign of things to come.
“With 24 people running, about the last thing we need to do is fight each other,” Bass said. “We need to focus on the number one priority, which is getting rid of the person who’s in the White House.”
When asked whether Biden should apologize, Reps. Hank Johnson of Georgia and Hakeem Jeffries of New York said he should not.
“I haven’t seen anything from Joe Biden that suggests at this moment that he should apologize,” said Jeffries, a member of the House Democratic leadership team.
Black lawmakers also defended Biden’s civil rights record. Jeffries noted that the former vice president worked in the Senate to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act three times. And Rep. Val Demings of Florida said Biden had worked to improve race relations, claiming that it was “evident by the number of people who do support him.” This year, CNN polling has found that Biden is the early leader in the Democratic presidential primary and performs even better with black voters than white voters.
The members of Congress also said politicians have to work with people they don’t like all the time. They said they’ve worked with Trump to benefit people of color, including on the First Step Act to overhaul prison and sentencing laws, and would work on other proposals too.
“If President Trump wanted to give $25 billion towards uplifting and improving black and brown communities that have been left behind, in spite of the racist, divisive, ugly statements that he has made, we’d take that money,” Demings said.
But in reminiscing about how he could work even with segregationists, Biden not only opened himself up to campaign attacks but also to calls for him to prove that he is in step with the issues that animate factions of the modern Democratic Party.
When asked about Biden’s comments, Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas urged him to sign on to her bill to create a commission to consider reparations for slavery, which got its first hearing earlier in the week.
“I encourage the vice president to read our legislation,” she told CNN. “And I encourage the vice president to announce that he supports it.”
CNN’s Jeff Zeleny, Arlette Saenz, Eric Bradner, Rebecca Buck, Daniella Diaz and Jessica Dean contributed to this report.
