ADVERTISEMENT

Biden Uses Jesse Jackson Event to Tout Civil Rights Credentials

Biden Defends Civil Rights Record After Harris Debate Exchange

(Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden defended his civil rights record on Friday, a day after being put on the defensive over racial issues by Senator Kamala Harris during a candidates debate in Miami.

“I know and you know, I fought my heart out to ensure that civil rights and voting rights, equal rights are enforced everywhere,” the former vice president told more than 400 people at the annual gathering of civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition in Chicago.

Biden Uses Jesse Jackson Event to Tout Civil Rights Credentials

The current Democratic front-runner, Biden was challenged several times during the two-hour forum in Miami over his past stances and current positions on issues such as health care and immigration.

He sustained the harshest blows from California’s Harris, the only candidate of African-American heritage on the stage, for what she termed recent “hurtful” comments fondly recalling his cordial relationships with segregationist lawmakers in the 1970s and 1980s.

The former senator from Delaware has also received scrutiny for his role in the 1994 crime bill, which has been blamed for mass incarceration and its disproportionate impact on African-Americans.

Dominant Presence

Biden has dominated the field with black voters in early polls, buoyed by his eight years as Barack Obama’s vice president and long relationships with community leaders. That constituency is valued as it’s decided the Democratic presidential nominee in every contested primary since 1992.

“If I get elected president I will be a president that stands against racism,” Biden said in Chicago, comparing himself to President Donald Trump. He also alluded at length to his work with Obama.

Todd Shaw, a political science professor at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, said reactions to Biden’s missteps display an “age gap” within the black electorate.

Shaw said party elder statesmen like Representatives John Lewis of Georgia and Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, veterans of the civil rights movement, “weren’t quite as off-put” as Harris and Senator Cory Booker, the top black candidates for the 2020 nomination.

‘Direct Appeal’

The Miami debates showed that the candidates are making “a very direct appeal to black voters,”’ Shaw said. “There’s the discussion of civil rights, voting rights, even this mention of reparations.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren will address Rainbow Push’s event on Saturday. The Massachusetts Democrat will also hold a town hall meeting in Chicago on Friday evening. Democratic candidates Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota are also scheduled to attend Rainbow Push activities.

Biden and Jackson have their own history. Ahead of the 2008 primary, Biden created a stir when he said Obama was the first black presidential candidate “who is articulate and bright and clean.” Jackson ran for the Democratic nomination in 1984 and 1988, and Representative Shirley Chisholm of New York made a bid in 1972.

Jackson told reporters ahead of Biden’s speech on Friday that the former vice president had been “on the wrong side of history” on the issue of federally mandated busing as a way to integrate schools.

Still, Jackson said that Biden’s presence on the 2008 ticket likely helped Obama become the first black U.S. president. Biden helped attract “a number of whites who had unfounded fears about Barack Obama,” Jackson said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mario Parker in Chicago at mparker22@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Laurie Asséo

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.