Black lawmakers call Biden surrogate's comments racist, demand former VP disavow

[Celerity]

“I am not racially motivated in any of this,” Harpootlian said. “I will not be silenced by those who use race as a shield from criticism. ... This is an effort to shield themselves by saying this is racist.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/black-lawmakers-demand-biden-disavow-surrogate-s-racist-comments-n1131531

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Black lawmakers in South Carolina are calling on former Vice President Joe Biden to disavow statements from a longtime friend and campaign surrogate that they say are racist.

About half of the 45-member Legislative Black Caucus held a news conference on Wednesday blasting Democratic state Sen. Dick Harpootlian for remarks they contend insinuated that their group’s chairman had been bought by Biden rival Tom Steyer because he was paid for his work for Steyer’s campaign. They said Biden, who is running for president and is a top contender in the upcoming South Carolina primary, should distance himself from Harpootlian following the comments.

“We ask that he do it publicly, and that he do it now,” House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford said. “His refusal to do so will not go over well in the black community, and it certainly will not go over well with members of the Black Caucus that are standing behind me.” Harpootlian denies that his comments were racially motivated. Biden spokeswoman Paige Hill said Wednesday that Harpootlian “does not speak for the Biden campaign.”

The fight broke out just over three weeks before South Carolina’s presidential primary, the first voting contest in the South. The majority of South Carolina’s Democratic voting electorate is black, a demographic that overwhelmingly supports Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential race. Biden is working to find his footing after a struggling showing in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses on Monday.

snip

[EveHammond13]

1. Biden should ignore this bullshit

[Celerity]

4. he should ignore half of the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus? nt

[brush]

20. Where is the racist quote? How are we to decide if it's not posted?

[Celerity]

21. clicking the OP link is your friend

Harpootlian tweeted earlier Wednesday about Federal Election Commission filings showing Black Caucus Chairman Jerry Govan receiving “almost $50,000” from Steyer’s campaign in just more than a month’s time and called the billionaire Steyer “Mr. Money Bags.”

“Is he pocketing the dough or redistributing the wealth?” Harpootlian asked, referring to Govan.

Harpootlian also told the Post and Courier newspaper of South Carolina: “He told me he was with Joe Biden until Mr. Moneybags showed up.” He continued: “This is what happens when billionaires get involved, whether it’s Donald Trump or Tom Steyer. They just buy things. They don’t have to persuade anybody, they just buy them.”

Link to tweet

[brush]

22. Thanks. I did click the link. Apparently one has to scroll and search for it. How hard is it to...

copy and paste it in the post if it's such a big deal to the poster?

[Celerity]

23. 4 paragraph rule

I could have put the tweet in the OP and more links, but I was watching the debate


my apologies

[EveHammond13]

2. I am trashing this thread. I have had ENOUGH of this shit-stirring BULLSHIT.

on today of all days

[MindMover]

53. We will eat ourselves before we get to 1 candidate..

[cwydro]

3. Yikes.

When it rains, it pours.

[TwilightZone]

5. "Harpootlian told reporters that he was not a Biden campaign spokesman...

and hadn’t consulted the campaign before making any comments"

"Biden spokeswoman Paige Hill said Wednesday that Harpootlian “does not speak for the Biden campaign.”"

"Surrogate" seems like a rather inaccurate word to use for this relationship.

[Iliyah]

6. So more BS . . .

[PatSeg]

8. Thanks!

[Celerity]

9. that is not how he has been characterised in the past

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/06/biden-iowa-campaign-111309



https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/02/can-joe-biden-come-back-from-the-brink-new-hampshire



https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/steyer-campaign-paid-top-black-sc-legislator-k-to-serve/article_1ba81bb4-4829-11ea-add7-d3c35a3897ea.html

[George II]

33. Obviously, from both Harpootlian and AND the Biden campaign, that first statement is either...

....false, an exaggeration, or an intended smear by those writing the article.

[Celerity]

35. Harpootlian was out in Iowa stumping for Biden, that makes him connected as a surrogate nt

[George II]

36. Not true. I was up in New Hampshire two weeks ago "stumping" for Biden. I'm not a surrogate....

A surrogate is one who speaks for the campaign in an OFFICIAL capacity.

[Celerity]

38. unfortunately the MSM deems that analogy a fail by their very reporting

Harpootlian is an member of Biden's campaign finance committee

https://thehill.com/homenews/the-memo/477803-the-memo-four-democrats-race-for-iowa-prize

Link to tweet

he is also a bundler for Biden

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/16/biden-fundraising-2020-049062



https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-raises-more-than-100000-at-south-carolina-fundraiser/

Columbia, S.C. — Former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign raised more than $100,000 Saturday night at a fundraiser that brought together the upper echelon of South Carolina Democratic politics, an informed source told CBS News. The fundraiser was organized and hosted by state Sen. Richard "Dick" Harpootlian, a former state party chairman and one of the state's most influential powerbrokers.


Harpootlian was an official precinct captain for Biden

https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20200204/iowa-releases-71-of-caucus-results-with-buttigieg-and-sanders-in-lead






Or are you going to now go down the Sanders primrose path and claim that the media is out to get Biden?

It was a shit thing to say, and all Biden needs to do is to disavow it.



Dick Harpootlian has long standing ties with Biden and a history of controversy.

here is a 2015 article

The Unofficial Spokesperson For Biden’s Unofficial Presidential Campaign Could Be A Problem

Joe Biden might run for president. He might not. But the consideration of a run has already drawn him closer to a person — former South Carolina Democratic chair Dick Harpootlian — who could be a liability the moment Biden made it official.

Evan McMorris-Santoro
BuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on August 25, 2015, at 3:16 p.m. ET

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/evanmcsan/joe-biden-dick-harpootlian

WASHINGTON — For Vice President Biden, the presidential speculation that has lit up political coverage in recent weeks is all about South Carolina. And that means it's all about Biden's loudest, brashest, and most public supporter: former state Democratic Party Chair Dick Harpootlian.

That could be a problem.

Harpootlian is an old-school politico, with connections across South Carolina that are the envy of his fellow Democrats and a political acumen that draws him praise from the most prominent Republicans in the state. He's Biden's best ally should a presidential run be afoot: He's got money, connections and at least could conceptually put the South Carolina primary in play, according to observers in the state.

But, in an era in which an increasingly diversified Democratic coalition stresses the politics of inclusive language, Harpootlian's got a mouth on him — one that sometimes brings joy to Democrats, often brings eyerolls, and on many occasions has at least skirted with the line if not outright crossed it.

"Dick is like a great defensive end in football," South Carolina' last Democratic governor, Jim Hodges, a Hillary Clinton supporter, told BuzzFeed News in an interview earlier this month. "He's going to get you a lot of sacks but on occasion he's going to get you a roughness call."

snip



here is a WaPo article from when Biden first entered the race

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/former-vice-president-joe-biden-jumps-into-white-house-race/2019/04/25/093ff596-0aef-11e9-88e3-989a3e456820_story.html


A broader network of friends and former aides has signaled hope for months that Biden would enter the race so they can join his campaign, an advantage his aides hope will allow him to quickly pull together a large organization. An underwhelming fundraiser in his first two campaigns for president, he is likely to be aided this time by deep-pocketed donors he got to know during the Obama years.

“We need to get more pragmatic and understand that Joe Biden is the only real chance to win in 2020,” said Dick Harpootlian, former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party. “My concern is our nominee has to be able to carry Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan — and I don’t see that in any of these other folks.”

snip

[George II]

39. Ah, that tells me a lot. So we have a 2016 Sanders "surrogate" seemingly making racist comments....

....here in 2020 (still waiting to see what that "racist" comment was), and is loosely, VERY loosely, connected to Biden, and the Biden campaign is being bashed because of it.

And now we're given a 2015 buzzfeed article claiming that Harpootlian (a SANDERS supporter) is Biden's biggest liability in 2016?

As they like to say, "connect the dots".

[Celerity]

40. he was not a Sanders supporter in 2015, when that 2015 article ran, and he was on Obama's campaign

finance committee in 2012

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390443294904578042993550945404



as he stated himself he was, in 2016, more anti-Hillary than pro-Bernie


also

it is simply not true to say he is

loosely, VERY loosely, connected to Biden

as shown by my reply, you do not let very loosely people on your finance committee, nor give stump speeches, nor let them be precinct captains for your campaign in a state they are not even from, nor go around to multiple states acting as a surrogate


Harpootlian was the head of the South Carolina Democratic Party as well, he is a huge power broker in the state

he a hosted fundraiser for Biden in his own house

Biden raises more than $100,000 at South Carolina fundraiser

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-raises-more-than-100000-at-south-carolina-fundraiser/







Super PAC reveals the big donors bankrolling Biden onslaught in Iowa

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/31/super-pac-big-donors-biden-iowa-110081






here is the quote btw

it was in the OP link

another poster up at the top asked the same thing and I already replied a while back

Harpootlian tweeted earlier Wednesday about Federal Election Commission filings showing Black Caucus Chairman Jerry Govan receiving “almost $50,000” from Steyer’s campaign in just more than a month’s time and called the billionaire Steyer “Mr. Money Bags.”

“Is he pocketing the dough or redistributing the wealth?” Harpootlian asked, referring to Govan.

Harpootlian also told the Post and Courier newspaper of South Carolina: “He told me he was with Joe Biden until Mr. Moneybags showed up.” He continued: “This is what happens when billionaires get involved, whether it’s Donald Trump or Tom Steyer. They just buy things. They don’t have to persuade anybody, they just buy them.”

Link to tweet

[George II]

41. But you posted this, which is what I responded to:

Link to tweet

[Celerity]

43. yes, to show the bloke is a loose cannon and also this part from the tweet

about the finance committee




I have zero problem with ex-Bernie's ex national press secretary Symone Sanders working for Biden now

I have no issue with Biden on this whole thing other than I wish he would say what Harpootlian said was wrong



more background

Link to tweet

here is the article that excerpt is from

https://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/02/03/richard-harpootlian-sharp-tongued-south-carolina-democrat-endorses-bernie-sanders/

snip

Mr. Harpootlian may be best remembered for showing up at a South Carolina campaign event in 2008 that Mr. Clinton was holding for his wife’s presidential campaign. There, Mr. Harpootlian told reporters that the Clinton campaign was using “reprehensible” tactics against the Obama campaign and accused the former president of lying about Mr. Obama in order to continue “some kind of Clinton dynasty.”

Mr. Clinton dismissed the remark but then let loose with a torrent of criticism against the Obama campaign, Mr. Harpootlian and the news media – a public outburst that was unusual for Mr. Clinton and that cast a pall over the primary race, which Mrs. Clinton went on to lose.

Mr. Harpootlian said he warned Mr. Sanders recently that his endorsement came “with some baggage.” He described the senator as unconcerned. “Senator Sanders said he understood that I was supposed to be a pitbull and attack dog when I was party chairman, and sometimes you get carried away,” Mr. Harpootlian said. He added that he did not plan to apologize for his past remarks.

Mr. Sanders has been insistent that he will not run a negative campaign against Mrs. Clinton or harshly attack her. When asked about Mr. Harpootlian’s history of negative remarks, Tad Devine, a senior adviser to Mr. Sanders, said, “We can’t be responsible for views of people who support Senator Sanders.”

snip

[George II]

44. We still haven't been told what the so-called "racist comments" are. The only thing I've seen is...

....a reference to "Mr. Money Bags".

However, I see in the last sentence that Tad Devine is saying exactly what the Biden campaign is saying about Mr. Harpootlian, i.e.: "We can’t be responsible for views of people who support Senator Sanders (VP Biden)"

[Celerity]

45. I have posted it multiple times now, here it is one last time

Harpootlian tweeted earlier Wednesday about Federal Election Commission filings showing Black Caucus Chairman Jerry Govan receiving “almost $50,000” from Steyer’s campaign in just more than a month’s time and called the billionaire Steyer “Mr. Money Bags.”

“Is he pocketing the dough or redistributing the wealth?” Harpootlian asked, referring to Govan.

Harpootlian also told the Post and Courier newspaper of South Carolina: “He told me he was with Joe Biden until Mr. Moneybags showed up.” He continued: “This is what happens when billionaires get involved, whether it’s Donald Trump or Tom Steyer. They just buy things. They don’t have to persuade anybody, they just buy them.”

Link to tweet

have a great night George

[George II]

46. That's racist? REALLY??

[Celerity]

47. many black elected South Carolina Democrats think it is

About half of the 45-member Legislative Black Caucus held a news conference on Wednesday blasting Democratic state Sen. Dick Harpootlian for remarks they contend insinuated that their group’s chairman had been bought by Biden rival Tom Steyer because he was paid for his work for Steyer’s campaign. They said Biden, who is running for president and is a top contender in the upcoming South Carolina primary, should distance himself from Harpootlian following the comments.

“We ask that he do it publicly, and that he do it now,” House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford said. “His refusal to do so will not go over well in the black community, and it certainly will not go over well with members of the Black Caucus that are standing behind me.”

video

[George II]

32. C'mon man, why be so pragmatic? The way it goes these days:

- Someone says something bad about someone
- Search for an ulterior motive, correct or not
- Find a (false) connection to a campaign
- Claim that candidate is "_______" (fill in the blank - racist, homophobic, nasty, etc.)

[still_one]

51. Gee, what a surprise. Someone is misrepresenting Bide, again

[aikoaiko]

7. Somehow, this must be Bernie's fault.

[TwilightZone]

10. Is portraying Sanders as a constant victim of everything supposed to help?

It seems a particularly odd assertion in a thread that has nothing to do with him.

[aikoaiko]

11. It was a joke. Lighten up.

[TwilightZone]

12. Ah, the "it was only a joke" defense.

Sure, go with that.

[George II]

13. What a surprise this comes up NOW! That was 36 hours ago, but since Biden did so great tonight....

...of course something that happened almost 2 days ago HAS to be "the story"!

[Celerity]

14. it was brought up in the debate tonight and it was a top trending story on my feed

I searched DU and did not find it posted before

[George II]

15. It wasn't a top trending story on my feed.

[Voltaire2]

16. The 36 Hour Rule!

This is a outrage! Call immediately!

Oh and Biden, eh, not so much tonight.

[George II]

17. If we were to rate the performances, he was second to Klobuchar, your sarcasm notwithstanding.

[Voltaire2]

18. So he came in behind one of the othet

candidates who will be exiting real soon?

[George II]

19. This isn't "America's Got Talent".

[Voltaire2]

25. Somebody upthread started this

“ but since Biden did so great tonight....”
And it wasn’t me.

[George II]

31. Yes, in a different context. Someone also said this "upthread":

"So he came in behind one of the othet candidates who will be exiting real soon?"

[R B Garr]

29. The poster is for Buttigieg. I guess they are trying to deflect

from Pete’s poor showing in the AA polls in South Carolina.

[BlueIdaho]

48. Not to mention Pete's

Ho-hum performance in the N.H. Debate...

[oasis]

24. If candidates disavowed every weak ass shit charge that came along

they wouldn't have time to run their campaigns.

[brutus smith]

26. You mean like Joe?

[BlueIdaho]

49. Warren has her own set of problems with minorities...

Or haven’t you heard?

[brutus smith]

55. When you're not a minority, you can try, but can't totally relate.

[Kentonio]

27. I'm genuinely confused.

How is what he said in any way racist?

[George II]

34. He said it about a black man, so it "has" to be racist. Don't see the racism in that comment either.

[LakeArenal]

52. Gawd George, I admire you a lot

Cuz you are tenacious.

Keep up the good fight.

[George II]

54. People try to make things more than they are, and if they aren't anything the create an issue....

If Biden is criticized by someone, is that person anti-Catholic or Irish? No.

That comment had no racial undertones whatsoever.

[denem]

28. 'Black Caucus Chairman Jerry Govan (is) receiving "almost $50,000" from Steyer's campaign" '

“Is he pocketing the dough or redistributing the wealth?”

That is a serious charge.

[BlueIdaho]

50. Wouldn't it be fair

For the Black Caucus to explain what they are using the Steyer money for? I’m assuming Govan isn’t taking back handers...

[George II]

30. I read the entire thing - where is the "racist" comment?

[highplainsdem]

37. It isn't racist.

[Politicub]

42. He'll eventually disavow the surrogate...

if history serves as a guide.

[UniteFightBack]

56. Any black folks around to weigh in on this? nt

[Gothmog]

57. African Americans trust and support Joe Biden -- and Bernie Sanders' dirty tactics won't change that

Link to tweet

For more than 30 years I have worked around the clock organizing and activating voters in South Carolina with my renowned “Reckoning Crew.”

We have hit the ground for local races, presidential races and everything in between — knocking on doors in rural communities and making phone calls into urban neighborhoods. We have had big wins and suffered some tough losses, but we are lucky to speak with so many voters in our communities.

It is safe to say that I know what South Carolina voters are looking for in 2020.....

Sanders’ divisive and baseless attacks won’t get him anywhere in the Palmetto State. And Sanders is proving to us —once again — that he just does not know or understand South Carolina voters.
By contrast former Vice President Joe Biden knows us like the back of his hand. And we know him.

Joe has more relationships in our communities than anyone else in this race.
He has more history with our communities than anyone else in this race.
And Joe is more comfortable in our communities than anyone else in this race.

Read more here: https://www.thestate.com/opinion/article239256523.html#storylink=cpy

[Celerity]

58. Sanders is not the issue (for once) here, in this specific issue

I do agree that his campaign is full of dirty tricks though, more than all of the rest of the Democratic campaigns combined.