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.
Interior Department heralds algae treatment in Reflecting Pool, comparing it to ‘destroyed’ Iranian navy
Several Trump-Endorsed Candidates Score Big Primary Wins, One Suffers a Close Loss
Hegseth announces 6-month review of American forces in Europe, blasts NATO allies for putting troops ‘at risk’
MLB accused of ‘double standard’ after calling out players’ Bible messages despite backing BLM in 2020
Race Hustlers Are About to Scream About Police Shooting This Little Boy – Don’t Let Them Start in the Middle of the Story
Iran peace deal inspires little celebration as US banks on ‘good behavior’ and ‘understanding’ from Tehran
Florida couple reaches agreement with daughter’s biological parents after alleged IVF mix-up
Florida court says 18-year-olds have same gun rights as other adults
DHS moves all detainees out of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ amid hurricane concerns
LaGuardia shuts down runway for second time in weeks after pavement issue resurfaces
Man killed after horse-drawn carriage bolts and flips near popular New York City tourist destination
Shocking Report: ‘250,000 Young White Girls’ Victimized by Muslim Rape Gangs
MUST SEE: ICE Officer Lifts Drowning Child Out of Water, Then Saves His Life with CPR – Dems Call People Like Him ‘Gestapo’
Trump switches support in Oklahoma congressional race as formerly endorsed pastor candidate suspends campaign
Trump-endorsed congressional candidate pledges entire $174K salary to wounded Iraq War veteran’s family
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.”
Interior Department heralds algae treatment in Reflecting Pool, comparing it to ‘destroyed’ Iranian navy
Several Trump-Endorsed Candidates Score Big Primary Wins, One Suffers a Close Loss
Hegseth announces 6-month review of American forces in Europe, blasts NATO allies for putting troops ‘at risk’
MLB accused of ‘double standard’ after calling out players’ Bible messages despite backing BLM in 2020
Race Hustlers Are About to Scream About Police Shooting This Little Boy – Don’t Let Them Start in the Middle of the Story
Iran peace deal inspires little celebration as US banks on ‘good behavior’ and ‘understanding’ from Tehran
Florida couple reaches agreement with daughter’s biological parents after alleged IVF mix-up
Florida court says 18-year-olds have same gun rights as other adults
DHS moves all detainees out of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ amid hurricane concerns
LaGuardia shuts down runway for second time in weeks after pavement issue resurfaces
Man killed after horse-drawn carriage bolts and flips near popular New York City tourist destination
Shocking Report: ‘250,000 Young White Girls’ Victimized by Muslim Rape Gangs
MUST SEE: ICE Officer Lifts Drowning Child Out of Water, Then Saves His Life with CPR – Dems Call People Like Him ‘Gestapo’
Trump switches support in Oklahoma congressional race as formerly endorsed pastor candidate suspends campaign
Trump-endorsed congressional candidate pledges entire $174K salary to wounded Iraq War veteran’s family
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.
