Democratic Primaries
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Biden and Democratic Rivals Exchange Attacks Over His Remarks on Segregationists
Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Wednesday lashed out at his Democratic rivals who had condemned his fond recollections of working relationships with segregationists in the Senate, declining to apologize and defending his record on civil rights. The angry exchange shattered, at least for now, the relative comity that had marked the Democratic presidential primary.
Until Wednesday, many of the Democratic candidates had largely taken oblique swipes at Mr. Biden, while the former vice president sought to stay above the fray, training his sights on President Trump instead.
But a day after he invoked the 1970s, an era when he said he could find common ground with other senators even virulent segregationists his opponents offered their sharpest criticism yet.
Senator Kamala Harris of California said the former vice president doesnt understand the history of our country and the dark history of our country, and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey said Mr. Biden should immediately apologize for using segregationists to make a point about civility in the Senate.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/us/politics/biden-eastland.html
Biden foolishly fanned the flames and this has now become a multi-day self inflicted disaster.

primary today, I would vote for: Undecided

emulatorloo
(45,728 posts)sympathizer and Neo-Nazi enabler: Donald J Trump.
I see Harris is already back to calling Trump out for his racism. I expect Booker to do the same soon. And Biden has called out Trump for his egregious response to Charlotteville over and over.
If Booker and Harris truly want to start rising in the polls, theyll refocus on policy and what theyll do as President of our country.
JMHO, which means absolutely nothing.

primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Voltaire2
(15,166 posts)and senate are in lockstep with Trump. Conversely, Trump is and has been in lockstep with these same Republicans. You and more importantly your candidate are making a serious mistake in thinking that the problem is just Trump.

primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)"Biden foolishly fanned the flames..."
No more and no less than many DUers as well. But I imagine a distinction lacking a relevant difference will soon be created.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Voltaire2
(15,166 posts)What happens here is basically irrelevant. What the leading democratic candidate does has consequences.

primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Gothmog
(157,750 posts)
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Voltaire2
(15,166 posts)He praised Eastland for his civility and said he could work with him. Eastland was an horrendous overt racist. Then he stuck his other foot in his mouth with the never called me boy remark. He omitted the fact that he was working with Eastland on anti-busing legislation.
Reportedly Bidens staff have begged him to stop retelling this story, but he aint listening.

primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Voltaire2
(15,166 posts)This is a crappy argument. It is a common fallacy known as equivocation.

primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)Adoration (Latin) is respect, reverence, strong admiration or devotion in a certain person, place, or thing. The term comes from the Latin adōrātiō, meaning "to give homage or worship to someone or something".
Praise as a form of social interaction expresses recognition, reassurance or admiration. Praise is expressed verbally as well as by body language (facial expression and gestures).
Wikipedia

primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Voltaire2
(15,166 posts)Thanks.

primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)They are similar, depending on the context. No two words are identical. There's a reason that there are different words for the same thing. The meaning is similar.
Booker's intent was the same, whether he said praise or adoration. More importantly, he was wrong. But I understand his desperation to make a mark, make some news, try to do something to get his numbers to move. His numbers won't be moving, though.

primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Voltaire2
(15,166 posts)to another word in order to use a meaning of the newly substituted word is an equivocation fallacy, even for English majors.

primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
R B Garr
(17,518 posts)on MSNBCs Velshi and Ruhle show. Bernie kept pushing the misinformation that Biden was praising segregationists and the hosts kept correcting that lie. Bernie snapped at Ruhle when she corrected him yet again. It was a shocking reaction.
Bernie has real and substantive self-inflicted disasters lately with misrepresenting Warren who is beating him now, and now also with Biden. Bernies multi-day self inflicted disaster (your words).

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Cha
(306,952 posts)mentioned BS' reaction to Stephanie Ruhle went she corrected him a 2nd time.. and I asked for more details.
Yeah, some people don't care about BS' self inflicted wounds.. only Biden's. That's why I don't take them seriously at all.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
R B Garr
(17,518 posts)
I dont take them seriously, either, and it looks to be backfiring on them like it did for Sanders.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
emmaverybo
(8,147 posts)was clear. He used two egregious character examples to show that legislators can and must work with their opposites to accomplish legislation.
Son is a red herring. Booker put a spin on its use to tarnish Joe by association.
Booker made Joes story about himself, exploiting it to reaffirm his woke cred.
No doubt Bookers experience with racist epithet cloaked in everyday forms of demeaning address is painful and profound.
However, he projected his story on to Joes, an exploitive political tactic Biden naturally resisted.
Bernie piled on, in service to his agenda.
Meanwhile, the state continues to perpetrate atrocities against Central American asylum seekers, increasing the extent and degree of persecution through additional draconian policies, justifying an illegal operation by a barrage of racist propaganda, which candidates fail to address, so busy are they manufacturing outrage over a rivals harmless story.
I do hope Joe stops apologizing for the offense rivals enjoy taking.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
ucrdem
(15,720 posts)
Bad move as Booker is also about to discover.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Gothmog
(157,750 posts)
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
True Blue American
(18,353 posts)Knows the first thing about Congress knows you have to work with those you do not agree with to accomplish anything.
Booker was trying to be noticed, Bernie is desperate due to his falling ratings to Warner. He has already called Warren a Corporatist, which is down right laughable due to her History. He is flailing.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)Biden even addresses that in his eulogy.
Thurmond promoted civil rights for more years than Cortez has been alive. Biden says something like, "Some people assign political expediency to his change of policy, but I prefer to think of it as a change with the times, a change of heart."

primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Voltaire2
(15,166 posts)
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)Whether it was because he had to, politically, or whether his heart changed, we can't know for sure.
Whether he used the words that you would demand he use, is another matter. But it's clear that he did denounce his former position against civil rights...in many ways.

primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Voltaire2
(15,166 posts)anything that can be construed as renouncing his segregationist views.
Starting in the 1970s, he moderated his position on race, but continued to defend his early segregationist campaigns on the basis of states' rights in the context of Southern society at the time.[7] He never fully renounced his earlier positions.[8]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond

primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
True Blue American
(18,353 posts)Admitted he had a black daughter was when he changed. I give him no thumbs up but that does nothing to the fact there are times when you have to work with the worst to accomplish anything.
That is what Joe said, nothing offensive.
The fact Biden had the decency to call shows his true character.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
True Blue American
(18,353 posts)He did.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
True Blue American
(18,353 posts)Or they stagnate. I enjoy learning, seeing things in perspective, change my mind. That is growing.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
emmaverybo
(8,147 posts)politicians for civil rights had been Southern segregationists because, like converts once immersed in some evil religion, they had got an inside view.
Miko Peled, former IDF soldier, grandson of a state founder and son of a general, devotes his life
to pro-Palestinian activism. His father, disenchanted with Israels military policies, became a critic and a professor in Arabic literature.
One can argue about Peleds thesis articulated in his book The Generals Son, but not with his
and his familys sincere and passionate evolution from true believers to fierce dissenters.
History is rife with such examples.
Biden has changed too. Maybe thats why he understands the capacity to.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Politicub
(12,309 posts)Its bizarre.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
True Blue American
(18,353 posts)Bookers 20 minutes on CNN, then others who are down in the polls jumped in. Not to mention 24 cable news reporting the same thing over and over.
Shades of Al Franken.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Politicub
(12,309 posts)That's the point of my post.
This is communications strategy 101... don't get into a tit-for-tat on something like an apology. Booker's remark was stupid. But, Biden shouldn't have dignified it with a plea for him to apologize for being offended. Now everyone is being asked about apologies. It has become absurd.
And Franken. Oh, please.
Franken would not invoke segregationists to make a point. This has nothing to do with Franken. Franken's issue was brought about by photos of him seemingly cupping a sleeping soldier's breasts.
I guess there is a common thread between the two, though. The issues were their own making, but everyone else gets the blame for the repercussions of stupid remarks and acts.
What Biden said isn't what a candidate is 2019 should be saying.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
True Blue American
(18,353 posts)Last edited Fri Jun 21, 2019, 01:50 PM - Edit history (1)
I doubt very much that Biden would demand an apology compnsidering he is the ultimate peacekeeper.
Please do not pee on my leg with a made up story like that.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
CentralMass
(15,846 posts)Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden defended his remarks about working with segregationist senators and fired back at rival Cory Booker.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/06/20/joe-biden-says-cory-booker-should-apologize-senate-segregationists-civility-ac360-vpx.cnn

primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
True Blue American
(18,353 posts)Booker could apologize to him. He said that in public.
I have no idea what they said on the phone but Biden is no Trump. He called Booker. That was after Booker spent 20 minutes on CNN dissing Biden in public. He really owes Joe an apology.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
CentralMass
(15,846 posts)his lips. Unless they were interviewing his twin, he said it.

primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
True Blue American
(18,353 posts)
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
BeyondGeography
(40,147 posts)He didnt, so the story lives.
Biden initiated this, and in saying Booker should apologize he made it a bigger story. Then he calls Booker and that was a flop too. His ineptitude in this wholly avoidable self-inflicted wound saga makes my head hurt.

primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Politicub
(12,309 posts)And, it's getting tedious to follow as it gets more complicated.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
ucrdem
(15,720 posts)No chance of that while the cameras are rolling.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
meow2u3
(25,004 posts)There seems to be this attitude of presentism, especially on our side of the aisle, in which presentists judge the reality of the past, even as recent as 20-50 years ago, by 21st century standards.
You can't apply 21st century norms to the reality on the ground in the 20th century.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
emmaverybo
(8,147 posts)at DU which helps balance out my anger at running into arguments I consider riddled with fallacies.

primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
FloridaBlues
(4,441 posts)
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden