You’re being VERY kind on your numbers there Joe….
His comments are from a town hall meeting held about racism in America…Biden said that he supports peaceful protests against racism in this country…And that racism isn’t gonna just go away…something American know….Hate has been used by some Americans for a long time and will continue to be felt them Biden pointed out….
Former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday said that 10 to 15 percent of “people out there” are just “not very good people.”
Speaking during a virtual town hall with young Americans, Biden discussed the importance of a president setting an example for the country on issues of race during a conversation moderated by actor Don Cheadle.
Biden accused President Trump of dividing the nation, saying “The words a president says matter, so when a president stands up and divides people all the time, you’re going to get the worst of us to come out.”
“Do we really think this is as good as we can be as a nation? I don’t think the vast majority of people think that,” the former vice president added. “There are probably anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of the people out there that are just not very good people, but that’s not who we are. The vast majority of the people are decent, and we have to appeal to that and we have to unite people — bring them together. Bring them together.”
Biden’s comments were reminiscent of some other controversial comments made by former presidential nominees….
…
During the Thursday town hall event, which focused on race and racism in the U.S. in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, several young black people asked Biden questions.
“George Floyd’s last words spoke to a nation where the color of your skin dictates the safety in your future. It’s long past time that these words have to be acted upon,” Biden said.
“Let me make something clear: I am a white man. I think I understand, but I can’t feel it. I mean I feel it, but I don’t know what it’s like, to be a black man walking down the street and be accosted, to be a black man walking down the street and be arrested, be a black man walking down the street and god forbid something worse happen to me,” he continued.
Biden told supporters that his election would not erase systemic racism in the U.S., saying that “Hate didn’t begin with Donald Trump, it’s not going to end with him.”
“The history of our country is not a fairy tale, it doesn’t guarantee a happy ending, but as I said earlier, we’re in a battle for the soul of this nation. It’s been a constant push and pull for the last 200 years,” Biden said during the 70-minute conversation.
Biden added that he thought “we had made enormous progress when we elected an African American president, I thought things had really changed.”
“I thought you could defeat hate, you could kill hate. But the point is, you can’t. Hate only hides, and if you breathe any oxygen into that hate, it comes alive again,” Biden said.
The former vice president also called for peaceful protests and demonstrations during the town hall event…
image….Jim Watson/AFP/Getty
The good guys can’t afford many more such gaffes from Joe Biden.
Remember that the Republic’s future (and maybe survival) are at stake.
My feeling is that something like 5% or less of people (anywhere) are rotten through and through (it’s a shame that one of them can sometimes be found at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.)
Since we’re human, and human beings are very complex, with many inconsistent features (religious believers believe that no soul is irredeemable), someone who’s a hateful repugnant racist at a Trump rally could also at the same time devote much of his or her energy to good works such as caring for old people or tending the sick or looking after animals or building schools or coaching Little League, without being conscious of what might like hypocrisy to us.
[I’m not talking about some cruel employer or ruthless stockbroker who brightens his outside reputation with a cheque to the hospital or opera or university. I’m talking about a lifelong, dedicated nurse who carries a racist sign to a MAGA rally. Jack can explicate this far better than I.]
Put your pearls away Dave, pearl clutching is dangerous.
Joe may be inarticulate, but he’s right. I understand you need to be inspired.
Get back to us when Joe says Mr. Floyd is looking down from heaven and has endorsed his campaign. Until then, give it a rest.
One of best tweets I’ve seen in a while….
Brett Matthews
@djbrettmatthews
Replying to
@JennaEllisEsq
One of these men barebacked a porn star while his wife was pregnant. The other man is Joe Biden.
I STRONGLY DISAGREE DSD….
I think his comment is soft…
40% of Americans would follow Donald Trump off a cliff screaming black people are NFG…..
There is little to no reaction to this….
Social media IS pissed because Biden’s meeting was NOT charried live by CNN…..
Yeah from what I saw of Biden’s comments he didn’t assign partisanship to the 10-15% of people he thinks is rotten.
I can’t imagine anyone regardless of party thinks every single one of us is sunshine and pure light,
Some are just assholes. But they don’t define who we are as a people. Which is pretty much what Joe said.
I am going to take a slightly different take on this one…Joe again may be right, just like his flub on the Breakfast Club, but he doesn’t need to say it out loud…I keep saying let his surrogates say this…stay above this…be the total contrast to the douche bag in office…I don’t think he needs to be silent and he can condemn people when they express racist/hateful ideology, but do it with specificity not generality…Call out the folks at Charolotsville, call out the cops who act in criminal way, call out the flag waving confederates, call out the anti-black lives matter protesters, etc…but not just a blanket statement that 15% of people are bad…and James your probably right, it is a lot more than that…
The comment has more reaction here then on social media…
Again?
He’s being nice with his percentages
I agree that it’s not going to hurt Biden, He was never going to get the votes of anyone taking issue with that comment to begin with.
Apart from how true it is, I, like bdog, just think this was an unwise and impolitic thing to say if you want to be President.
It may not be quite as foolish as letting yourself be recorded saying things about a basket of deplorables or the untaxed 47%.
But nearly everyone who has ever been soft on Trump will assume he or she is being classed by Biden in the 10% to 15% who are “not very good people”.
And I fully expect the Trump campaign and the RNC (let alone their “independent” co-campaigners) to make as productive use of that remark as they did with Hillary Clinton’s Basket of Deplorables.
And this time around, Joe Biden (unlike Hillary) is trying to present himself as Joe Average who (unlike Trump or H.R. Clinton) understands, empathizes and, above all, feels the pain and grievance of those low-information working-class voters in the Rust Belt and swing states.