Biden said that he was 'sorry for any of the pain and misconception' that his segregationist comments caused
Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images Before a largely African-American crowd in Sumter, South Carolina, former vice-president and current Democratic front-runner Joe Biden apologized for his recent statement on the “civility” of working with segregationists in the party in the 1970s.
“Was I wrong a few weeks ago to somehow give the impression to folks that I was praising those people who I opposed time and again? Yes I was. I regret it and I’m sorry for any of the pain and misconception it may have caused to anybody. But for that misstep to define 50 years of my record of fighting racial injustice. That doesn’t represent my record.”
For the Biden campaign, his apology will hopefully stop the bleeding of a June 19 shot to the foot, when the former vice-president boasted in a southern accent of the respect he inspired in segregationist James O. Eastland: “He never called me ‘boy,’ he always called me ‘son.’” Besides misunderstanding the racist context of the use of ‘boy,’ the comment brought in volleys of criticism for his relationships with arch-segregationists like senators Eastland and Herman Talmadge.
Worse for Biden’s presidential ambitions were the subsequent looks at his record opposing busing in 1975. Shortly after an early flash of busing-related violence in Boston, Biden supported legislation from North Carolina senator and civil-rights opponent Jesse Helms barring the federal government from enforcing busing. Helms’s amendment did not pass, though Biden did write similar legislation and called busing “an asinine policy.
Harris, who has been the most vocal critic of Biden thus far in the race, did not wholly embrace his half-apology. “He is right to recognize the impact of his words, and I applaud him for doing that,” Harris told reporters in Hartsville, South Carolina, on Saturday. “There is still a point of disagreement between he and I, and that remains … which is the issue of busing.”
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