*****Biden says Trump is America's first 'racist' president*****

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, on Wednesday called President Trump the country’s first racist to be elected to the White House.

The former vice president’s blunt assessment came during a virtual town hall organized by the Service Employees International Union after a health-care worker expressed concern that Trump continues to blame Asians for the coronavirus pandemic.[

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-says-trump-is-americas-first-racist-president/2020/07/22/867017e8-cc4b-11ea-bc6a-6841b28d9093_story.html

[Proud liberal 80]

1. Naw Washington was

Matter of fact, out of the first ten, only the two Adams weren’t

[Voltaire2]

3. Pretty much they all were at least up to FDR.

That includes for example Lincoln. FDR of course built his winning coalition by assuring southern democrats that apartheid was safe.

Wilson was a horrific racist.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

15. Do you think Lincoln was a racist at the time of his death?

His thinking had evolved. It's hard to read his Second Inaugural and not see how much it evolved.

[Proud liberal 80]

21. Naw I don't think John or John Q were

[still_one]

2. The bottom line is he is calling trump a racist. While he isn't including other presidents who fit

the category, I sure don’t recall the press, or very many Democrats openingly calling trump a racist

[Brother Buzz]

25. That will be the orange anus' job

Dimes to donuts he'll blow his response, BIGLY, but rolling out a shopping list of past presidents that fit the category. It's just the way he rolls.

[elleng]

4. VP Biden is correct, of course,

re: trump.

As to the others whom posters here are trashing (but for Wilson,) I'd be cautious.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

16. Warren G. Harding was much more liberal on race than the people he led.

[Goodheart]

5. How are trumpians going to defend this? The knee jerk response:

"No, he's not! There were many racists before him!"

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. There were others, but they didn't overtly make racism the core

of their campaigns or their administrations. Trump is as proudly and in-your-face racist as George Wallace.

[JDC]

12. By embracing it would be my guess

[misanthrope]

6. Woodrow Wilson could give him a run for his money

in leading that sizable pack. The sad truth is that everyone, regardless of your own ethnicity, who grows up in this racist society holds or combats racist tendencies or beliefs. It's the inevitable byproduct of being acculturated in America.

Remember Jesse Jackson's commentary about being shocked at himself when he first realized that he tensed up one night glimpsing a young African American man approaching him on the street? Jackson had been in the Civil Rights Movement, had fought prejudice and bigotry his whole life only to come to full realization in middle age's tail end just how deeply the system had ingrained racism in all of us.

[gollygee]

33. I bet Wilson was even worse

Wilson was a big fan of the KKK

[rockfordfile]

39. There were other republican Presidents at the time that were KKK

[tman]

8. I love Biden but we've had many.

[mucifer]

9. Andrew Johnson wasn't racist?????

[Skittles]

10. why are you clapping

racist, yes - the FIRST racist president? um, NO

[tandem5]

11. I appreciate the sentiment, but HA!

[gollygee]

34. Yeah, HA was my first response too

I do appreciate the slam against how racist Trump is though.

[Autumn]

13. No, Trump is not Americas's first 'racist' president. nt

[JonLP24]

14. I'm voting for Biden but I strongly disagree with this

Has he heard the Nixon tapes? Woodrow Wilson was also notable and I'm not even counting 1800s or 1700s Presidents. Don't forget Reagan's dog whistles.

I had to check twice even click on the link to make sure the headline is real.

[BannonsLiver]

17. To all the people complaining about the accuracy of this statement

FFS just go with it. Joes not teaching history. It’s a god damn campaign. Stop whining.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

19. I agree

I would add Lincoln at the time of his martyrdom was not racist. Neither was Grant or Harding.


Imagine the brouhaha if he named all the racist presidents!

[BannonsLiver]

20. +1

[Proud liberal 80]

22. Easier to name the non-racist ones

Imagine the brouhaha if he named all the racist presidents!

The two Adams, Lincoln, Grant, Taft, Harding, FDR, Truman, LBJ (he changed), Ford, Carter, Clinton, Obama.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

23. During the Civil War Grant made anti-semitic comments about Jewish merchants in the South.

He apologized profusely and had Jewish confidantes during his administration. That being said he truly believed in the cause of the freedman as did Lincoln at the time of his martyrdom.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

31. As an ex president Ford wrote an amicus brief in favor of affirmative action

As an ex- president Ford wrote an amicus brief in favor of affirmative action when his alma mata, the University Of Michigan's affirmative action program was challenged before the Supreme Court. As a member of the University Of Michigan football team he also refused to stay in a hotel when a black player was denied accommodations.

I wonder what he would make of Trump.

[Proud liberal 80]

36. Yeah

Most Republicans over the last 50 years have been racist, but Ford was a good one.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

37. He also fired Earl Butz for his racist comments.

[oasis]

40. If Biden would have said "Trump is one of the most racist presidents",

it would please many on this thread, but Joe would surely be pressed to list the other "racist" presidents.

What then.

Joe called out Trump for being a racist. That's fine with me.

[SiliconValley_Dem]

18. 5 Pinnichios for that statement

[WhiskeyGrinder]

24. Lol nope.

[Drunken Irishman]

26. This is a genius remark by Biden and I'm not surprised it went over so many peoples' heads.

The right has essentially boxed themselves in by stating the founding fathers, and past presidents, weren't racist because they were a byproduct of their time. Biden stating this makes it impossible for them to answer because then they'd have to concede their point past presidents were, in fact, racist and not a byproduct of their time like they've been telling us over and over again.

So, they either own up to the racist past or come back with a 'nuh-uh'.

Beautiful.

[ProfessorGAC]

27. +1

Too many overreacting to the details seem to be forgetting how politics work.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

28. "This is a genius remark by Biden and I'm not surprised it went over so many peoples' heads."

I guess some folks wanted him to say the U.S is irredeemably racist as if he was on track to become a tenured professor in sociology.


SMH

[JonLP24]

30. I don't think the US would be as racist as it is if Trump was the first racist President

More than what someone says is their actions. The US also has a racist foreign policy as well at times like Iraq. Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11 but Bush used the Islamaphobia for support for Iraq.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

32. If Biden said Trump was one of many racist presidents

If Biden said Trump was one of many racist presidents do you think that would be helpful to his campaign?

[uponit7771]

29. K&R, Trump is in competition with Andrew Johnson

[gollygee]

38. And Woodrow Wilson nt

[book_worm]

35. It was a ridiculous thing for Biden to say

Since nearly every president before 1960 and even a few after 1960 were racists. Some more than others. Yes, Trump is a racist but he's not the first one. The media will now be all over Biden for this. It's these traps he's got to watch out for.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

41. But like...why would he say it tho.

[BannonsLiver]

46. Well it's not as dumb as saying fixing income inequality fixes racism

Lot of misguided and hopelessly naive folks bought into that twaddle.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

47. Oh, I'd say those are equally ignorant viewpoints, both fundamentally and possibly willfully

misunderstanding the concept of racism in order to prioritize white comfort.

[ecstatic]

42. Let's not overthink this.

I would say at least 40 others were as well, but it's time to focus on winning instead of hand wringing.

We can focus on the fine details of everything NEXT YEAR after Biden is safely in the White House!

[Gothmog]

43. Water is also wet

[meow2u3]

44. Trump is the first BRAZENLY, GENOCIDALLY racist president

Slight correction, Joe.

There have been racist presidents before, but they kept their bigotry hidden behind genteel code words, what we call dog-whistle politics now. Trump makes no secret of his hate; in fact, genodical racism is his policy.

[Bucky]

45. It's not a historically well informed opinion

[BannonsLiver]

48. Who cares.

He’s not a history professor, he’s running for president and the focus should be on THIS president, not Andrew Johnson or Jackson or the others.

[delisen]

49. It is part of the we can all get along as we did before

belief system.