Vice President Joe Biden has injected race into the presidential campaign — by linking Donald Trump, the popular GOP front-runner, with xenophobic and racist movements of the past.
The line of attack augers a broader war against Trump and his ideas about immigration, one waged by both Democrats and establishment Republicans that charges Trump is stirring latent intolerance within the GOP.
Speaking during a celebration at the vice president’s residence of Hispanic Heritage Month, Biden charged that Trump was a throwback to the Know Nothing Party, a sometimes violently anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant movement that flourished briefly in the 1850s.
“I want you to remember, notwithstanding the fact that one guy absolutely denigrated an entire group of people, appealing to the baser side of human nature, working on this notion of xenophobia in a way that hasn’t occurred in a long time, since the Know Nothing party at the end of the 19th century.”
Biden said Trump is offering a “sick message” on immigration, linking him to past racism in America by invoking the 1960s civil rights theme, “We Shall Overcome.”
“It’s about a sick message,” Biden said. “This message has been tried on America many times before. We always, always, always, always, always overcome.”
By invoking past bigotry to a Hispanic audience, Biden is implicitly casting as racist Trump’s wildly enthusiastic backers, who according to polls make up nearly a third of the Republican Party.
Suggestions of intolerance against those concerned about too much immigration from Mexico and Central America are not unique to Democrats. The Wall Street Journal editorial page regularly rings with the charge that nativism animates those who want to slow immigration.
Speaking in 2011 at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, former President George W. Bush suggested xenophobia was driving views not just on immigration, but on trade and non-interventionism in foreign wars as well.
“What’s interesting about our country, if you study history, is that there are some ‘isms’ that occasionally pop up — pop up. One is isolationism and its evil twin protectionism and its evil triplet nativism,” Bush said.
“So if you study the ’20s, for example, there was — there was an American first policy that said who cares what happens in Europe?” he continued. “And there was an immigration policy that I think during this period argued we had too many Jews and too many Italians, therefore we should have no immigrants. And my point is that we’ve been through this kind of period of isolationism, protectionism and nativism. I’m a little concerned that we may be going through the same period.”
Biden’s remarks have the ring of an incipient presidential campaign, for which corralling Latino voters — both in the primaries and the general election — will be critical. And the attack indicates Biden is willing to take the nasty campaign President Obama ran against Mitt Romney in 2012 and double down on the vitriol.
Biden suggested Trump lacks decency.
“The American people are decent,” Biden said. “I don’t want anybody to be down right now about what’s going on in the Republican Party.”
Biden seemed to contrast Trump’s message with that of Pope Francis, who visits the United States next week.
Shortly after the GOP debate, “the most popular man in the world is about to come to the United States of America,” Biden said. “Why is he so popular? Because he says, ‘Whatever you do unto the least of my brethren you do unto me.’”
While denigrating millions of Republicans, Biden tried to also cast himself as benevolent, suggesting he wasn’t talking about most in the GOP and that Trump backers would change their views.
“This will pass,” Biden said. “The Trump and that stuff you’re hearing on the other team” isn’t about Democrat, Republican.
“Look, you’re talking about somebody who’s talking about a minority within a minority party within a minority,” Biden said.
Actually, the Republican Party is the majority party, in charge of both houses of Congress.
This post first appeared on the other website I edit, PoliZette.
38 thoughts on “Biden Plays Race Card Against Trump”
“The American people are decent,” Biden said. “I don’t want anybody to be down right now about what’s going on in the Republican Party.”
This from a man that skinny dips in front of female SS officers.
O/T, I love these ladies…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=94&v=Z7uig-o_Eoo
Biden is using the old trick–not distinguishing between legal and illegal immigrants. We love legal immigrants (we accept more legal immigrants int he US than the entire EU nations take in combined.) They have much to offer, have worked hard for years to qualify for citizenship. We want more!
Obviously, the massive, never ending flow illegal immigrants into this country is the destructive issue, for the reasons we all know.
So they play with the language. It’s not illegal immigrants, it’s undocumented immigrants. It’s not illegal immigrants, it’s refugees. It’s not illegal immigrants, it’s people seeking a better life. Etc.
From Orwell’s “1984”:
“It’s a beautiful thing, the Destruction of words. Of course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of as well. It isn’t only the synonyms; there are also the antonyms. After all, what justification is there for a word, which is simply the opposite of some other word? A word contains its opposite in itself. Take ‘good,’ for instance. If you have a word like ‘good,’ what need is there for a word like ‘bad’? ‘Ungood’ will do just as well – better, because it’s an exact opposite, which the other is not. Or again, if you want a stronger version of ‘good,’ what sense is there in having a whole string of vague useless words like ‘excellent’ and ‘splendid’ and all the rest of them? ‘Plusgood’ covers the meaning or ‘doubleplusgood’ if you want something stronger still. Of course we use those forms already, but in the final version of Newspeak there’ll be nothing else. In the end the whole notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six words – in reality, only one word. Don’t you see the beauty of that, Winston? It was B.B.’s idea originally, of course,” he added as an afterthought. ”
Also from 1984″:
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten.”
Thank you for bringing this up. We’re seeing this in academia and those professors who recently banned certain terms from the classroom.
All part of the linguistic programming going on in the classroom. Those engaged in the practice use shame and mockery to convince students that they must get in line or accuse them of being “out of touch”, or insensitive, or haters. You know the drill. We must all wear the same uniform, have the acceptable and correct political opinions and march in step. OR ELSE!
So Biden decided to go the full Alinsky on Trump and his supporters. Meh, that which doth not kill them will make them stronger.
I guess he’s out of mourning ?
Trump is taking a lot of flak.
He is over the target.
“…what’s going on in the Republican Party.”
“They’re going to put y’all back in chains.”
“the fact that one guy absolutely denigrated an entire group of people, appealing to the baser side of human nature.”
The Joe Biden Trifecta.
Here’s hoping Uncle Joe jumps in the race. The squabbling on the left will be entertaining, and poor Joe will be forced to defend the last 8 years of ineptitude.
Bring it on Joey, we cannot wait…
H
Joe’s campaign (probably not Joe) is smart enough to know that the less this candidate actually says is better. Delaying his entrance to the race reduces the number of statements that he makes. The more words that come out of his mouth, the more people may notice that he’s an idiot. He can only lose votes.
Biden is basically an echo chamber, usually off tune, and generally missing the point of the discussion. That’s why people often go, “huh?” after he says something.
If he had worked for Reagan (I know, I know ;+}), he would have sounded like Reagan. If he had worked for Mussolini, he would have sounded like Mussolini. If he worked for Pol Pot, he would have sounded like Pol Pot. He works for Obama, and therefore he sounds like Obama.
There is no there there with Joe. His inner core is like a deflated football being tossed around by the Obama people.. He’s just a mirror of whatever situation he finds himself in, which he often misreads. He’s a political cockatoo who just repeats what he hears, creating the illusion he knows what he talking about.
The real Biden was seen in that “debate” he had with Paul Ryan in 2012–https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3roG09O6T4.
Biden made weird faces, laughed, grimaced, mocked Ryan and acted like an idiot. But he would not engage Ryan on the substance of the debate. In other words, he was completely over his head on the issues, odd as that sounds.
That’s the real Biden.
Biden is basically an echo chamber, usually off tune, and generally missing the point of the discussion. That’s why people often go, “huh??” after he says something.
If he had worked for Reagan (I know, I know ;+}), he would have sounded like Reagan. If he had worked for Mussolini, he would have sounded like Mussolini. If he worked for Pol Pot, he would have sounded like Pol Pot. He works for Obama, and therefore he sounds like Obama.
There is no there there with Joe. His inner core is like a deflated football being tossed around by the Obama people.. He’s just a mirror of whatever situation he finds himself in, which he often misreads. He’s a political cockatoo who just repeats what he hears, creating the illusion he knows what he talking about.
The real Biden was seen in that “debate” he had with Paul Ryan in 2012–https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3roG09O6T4.
Biden made weird faces, laughed, grimaced, mocked Ryan and acted like an idiot. But he would not engage Ryan on the substance of the debate. In other words, he was completely over his head on the issues, odd as that sounds.
That’s the real Biden.
I had to say it twice. ;+}
not me! I think Biden’s got a better shot at defeating a Republican than Hillary does.
I have a fb friend who admittedly is in “Hillary’s camp.”
Good grief. People are stupid and I don’t mean bent over.
The dems continue to capitalize on the lack of education and principles in our current culture. They count on the fact that people don’t understand that we have laws regulating immigration. They cherry-pick the laws that benefit their party at the expense of the whole country. I’m sick of it. If we haven’t passed laws to reform immigration to suit their agendas, it’s for a reason. To Biden: Stop using people’s stupidity to try to bolster your campaign. Oh, wait, that’s all he has.
The left have done their level best to indoctrinate the lofo voter, and now Trump comes along.
Trump is not afraid of Biden.
Neither are the other candidates.
Biden is a fool to get into this race but then many fools have tried and failed before.
Biden is the poster boy for stupid.
Is Mexican or S American a race? I do see this nativism as a slur against people from other countries…covered up by the “illegal” label. But, of course, I am sure “the good ones” are exempted. You should see my mailbox–little hints to me all day about how bad immigrants will be for us.
Illegal immigrants !
Yes, Keyword: Illegal
Can’t believe the LoFo’s are that Lo ;)
Exactly.
It morphs into all immigrants pretty fast–since no one can tell one from the other.
And that’s the problem in this debate.
Glen Beck and Joe Biden both agree we are raciest! You can’t make this stuff up, what a long strange trip this race is.
I take Beck with a grain of salt.
Go check his Facebook, he is losing his mind or something.
I do not Facebook.
Don’t trust it.
This is OT but I think important since the debate will be tonight. You can assume Trump will go after Carly’s business record. Here is an article which defends her record. It is a long read.
http://journal.ijreview.com/2015/09/247859-dont-listen-trump-heres-truth-carly-fiorinas-business-record/
That’s a great read Old Timer.
She is a savvy lady.
Biden is a fucking moron and the main reason Obama is safe from impeachment and removal. He’s a joke and I hope he runs for POTUS–although it’s sad he’s going to try for the sympathy vote because of his dead kid.
While Joe may approve of your first f-ing adjective, this site does not. Your comments will last longer if your word choice keeps you out of mod jail.
Yeah,….you have to watch the language here.
WZ has no apparent restrictions, unless you are a troll.
The American people are decent,” Biden said. “I don’t want anybody to be down right now about what’s going on in the Republican Party.”
are you guys “down about” what’s going on in the GOP? personally I’m down about what’s going on in the Democrat Party, what with the $150 billion gift to Iran and all.
The $150,000,000,000 gift to Iran makes the US the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the history of the world.
Biden did not mention the legal status or race of anyone. He said…’one guy absolutely denigrated an entire group of people’. He was referring to ‘illegals’, I presume.
That said, Trump comes off as a heartless tyrant, with his vow of deporting each and every one of the 11M (plus) illegals and their anchor kids. Some of then have been here 20, 30, 40, 50 years. It’s a statistical impossibility, and he does not have the right to deport anchor kids.
If Trump is referring ONLY to hispanic illegals, than he is definitely racist. We have millions of illegals of every color and creed in this country, not just hispanics.
As so fed up with the Donald…all hat, no cattle. He also did himself no favors with his non-foreign policy speech yesterday on the battleship. All I heard was the same old immigration vitriol.
nless one of the other 16 can find their voice and take him down. At this time, it seems unlikely!
Has anyone Ever accused biden of knowing wtf was going on?!
Not that I know of…
The Pope? He’s just another leftist, another socialist. Biden is wrong when referring to Trump. Biden sees nothing wrong with folks coming to this country without visa or even a passport. So, I ask him,”What’s the point of laws?”
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