During a 2020 campaign event this week, former Vice President – and current Democratic hopeful – Joe Biden recalled working "to get things done" with segregationist Democrat Senators James Eastland and Herman Talmadge. Pointing to the "civility" back in the 1970s, he noted that there were ways to succeed.
"We got things done. We didn't agree on much of anything. We got things done,” he offered. “We got it finished. But today, you look at the other side and you're the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don't talk to each other anymore." As you might’ve guessed, other Democratic presidential candidates smelled chum in the water and attacked.
Among them, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, who said Biden's relationships with proud segregationists are not the "model" for making America safer and more inclusive. He also called on Biden to apologize. He’s refusing – and says not only does he have nothing to apologize for, that Booker ought to apologize because “he knows I don’t have a racist bone in my body.”
Source: New York Times