Former Vice President Joe Biden linked President Donald Trump to the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in a sermon on Sunday in a black church in South Carolina on the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“We can defeat this moment of hate. … This president and his — the Ku Klux Klans and the rest of them, they think they’ve beaten us again. But they have no idea — we’re just coming back. God love you all,” Biden told the Bethlehem Baptist Church in Columbia, South Carolina.
In a halting speech, Biden also repeated the false claim that President Donald Trump had referred to white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville as “very fine people” in August 2017.
“They asked the president what he thought, and he said, ‘There are very fine people on both sides’,” Biden claimed.
In fact, Trump specifically condemned those groups, as the transcript of his remarks reveals.
‘He Was Licking His Lips With the Blood’ – Witness to Would-Be Beheading in N. Ireland Shares Grotesque Details
House Dem lashes out at GOP efforts to probe foreign donations with stunning claim on motive
Video: Christian Coffee Shop Hosts Worship as Vicious Trans Activists Scream, Attack Right Outside Their Door
‘Squad’ Dem dismisses fraud probe speculation after $29M net-worth drop
WATCH: Hearing turmoil as Jasmine Crockett unloads on MLK’s niece in wild racially-charged rant
Nancy Mace Announces Next Career Move After Losing South Carolina Gov. Primary
Karmelo Anthony isolated in jail as track meet killer appeals conviction, preps for prison stint
Video: Infuriated by Immigrant’s Attempted Beheading, Irish Citizens Set Fires Across Belfast
Obama-appointed judge with ties to anti-Trump conspiracy theory hit with misconduct complaint
Pregnant mother found murdered in Mexico as frantic search for missing children ends with surprise discovery
Senate Democrats urge a reluctant party to embrace Platner
First on Fox: Trump admin opens new front in fraud crackdown targeting health insurers, drug middlemen
God Help Us: Donations Continued to Roll in for Karmelo Anthony After He Was Convicted of Murder
GRAPHIC LANGUAGE: ‘This Is a War,’ ‘Both … Brothers Should Be Dead!’ – Chilling Videos from Karmelo Anthony Supporters Outside Courthouse
Trump concession breathes new life into stalled FISA spy powers deal
Trump had praised non-violent protesters on either side of the removal of a Confederate statue as “very fine people,” contrasting them with violent rioters, and saying neo-Nazis and white nationalists should be “condemned totally.”
Breitbart News specifically confronted Biden directly at the Iowa State Fair last summer with the fact that he was misquoting the president. He and his campaign continue to claim otherwise, and to spread the “Charlottesville hoax.”
‘He Was Licking His Lips With the Blood’ – Witness to Would-Be Beheading in N. Ireland Shares Grotesque Details
House Dem lashes out at GOP efforts to probe foreign donations with stunning claim on motive
Video: Christian Coffee Shop Hosts Worship as Vicious Trans Activists Scream, Attack Right Outside Their Door
‘Squad’ Dem dismisses fraud probe speculation after $29M net-worth drop
WATCH: Hearing turmoil as Jasmine Crockett unloads on MLK’s niece in wild racially-charged rant
Nancy Mace Announces Next Career Move After Losing South Carolina Gov. Primary
Karmelo Anthony isolated in jail as track meet killer appeals conviction, preps for prison stint
Video: Infuriated by Immigrant’s Attempted Beheading, Irish Citizens Set Fires Across Belfast
Obama-appointed judge with ties to anti-Trump conspiracy theory hit with misconduct complaint
Pregnant mother found murdered in Mexico as frantic search for missing children ends with surprise discovery
Senate Democrats urge a reluctant party to embrace Platner
First on Fox: Trump admin opens new front in fraud crackdown targeting health insurers, drug middlemen
God Help Us: Donations Continued to Roll in for Karmelo Anthony After He Was Convicted of Murder
GRAPHIC LANGUAGE: ‘This Is a War,’ ‘Both … Brothers Should Be Dead!’ – Chilling Videos from Karmelo Anthony Supporters Outside Courthouse
Trump concession breathes new life into stalled FISA spy powers deal
Biden has made the false claim throughout his campaign, citing it as his very reason for running in his launch video. His sermon Sunday repeated what he has said previously in South Carolina — but with an explicit link to the KKK.
Biden was introduced by Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL), who endorsed Biden and said that there was “no bigger threat to [Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s] legacy than the person who is in the White House now.”
The former vice president said that he had been involved in the civil rights movement “for real” as a teenager, and said “I got my education — for real — in the black church. And that’s not hyperbole, that’s a fact.”
Biden repeatedly referred to former President Barack Obama, who has not yet endorsed anyone in the 2020 primary.
Sunday’s sermon was not the first time Biden has linked a political opponent to the worst of white racism, in an effort to appeal to an African-American audience. During his 2012 re-election campaign, Biden told a predominantly black group of voters in Virginia that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney would “put y’all back in chains.”
The New York Times reported that Biden is expected to join other Democratic hopefuls in a rally at the state capitol in Columbia for an annual march in King’s memory. Biden’s support among black voters in the state is seen as a “firewall” against possible victories by his rivals in other early primary states, who poll poorly thus far among black voters.
Story cited here.
