OPINION:
For decades, President Joe Biden exploited race to advance his political career.
Mr. Biden’s long history in public life provides ample evidence in both words and deeds of the now president playing both sides of the race card for political gain.
So in Mr. Biden’s own words, “Look at my record, man.”
Here we go.
Early in his political career, Mr. Biden befriended Democratic segregationists to capitalize on their power to advance in the Senate chamber and his political goals. For example, Mississippi Sen. James Eastland, who offered his assistance to help Mr. Biden with his re-election in 1978, said Blacks were “an inferior race.”
Mr. Eastland also called the Brown vs. Board of Education decision a “monstrous crime,” and together, Mr. Eastland and Mr. Biden worked on an anti-busing bill to prevent desegregation in schools.
Mr. Eastland mentored Mr. Biden during his early Senate career and Mr. Biden maintained a fondness for him.
When commenting about his past relationships with segregationists, Mr. Biden often recalled favorable memories of his emotional connection to racist Democrats.
While running for president for the third time, Mr. Biden said before his donors referring to Mr. Eastland, “He never called me ‘boy,’ he always called me ‘son.’”
Mr. Biden siding with segregationists in his early career is such an obvious political liability that then-Senator Kamala Harris drove an 18 wheeler truck through it during a Democratic debate.
There is also Mr. Biden’s relationship with the late former Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Mr. Byrd was a former recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan and even with this backdrop, Mr. Byrd was elevated to the highest role in the Senate.
Mr. Byrd, by the way, filibustered the 1964 Civil Rights Act for over 14 hours. Let that sink in for a moment.
But none of this mattered to Mr. Biden. During the eulogy at Mr. Byrd’s funeral in 2010, then-Vice President Biden said, “He was a friend, he was a mentor and he was a guide.”
Mr. Biden also looked up to Gov. George Wallace who in 1963, stood in the doorway of an Alabama university to block Black students from enrolling.
During an inaugural address the same year, Mr. Wallace told the crowd, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.”
Despite Mr. Wallace’s blatant racism, Mr. Biden expressed support for him in 1975 saying: “I think the Democratic Party could stand a liberal George Wallace - someone who’s not afraid to stand up and offend people, someone who wouldn’t pander but would say what the American people know in their gut is right.”
Mr. Biden also bragged about an award he received from Mr. Wallace.
Today, Mr. Biden’s exploitation of race for political gain continues, however, in the opposite direction.
Recognizing the importance of the Black vote for Democrats, especially with the rise in Black support for former President Trump during the 2020 election, Mr. Biden positions himself as a strong backer of the Black community.
To emphasize his support, Mr. Biden recently traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to deliver remarks on the 100th anniversary of the bloody massacre at Black Wall Street where hundreds of innocent Black citizens were killed and injured by White racists.
Black Wall Street was a bustling and thriving community of doctor and lawyer practices, restaurants, nightclubs, grocery stores and other establishments, only to suffer untold devastation of violent racism and hatred by a White mob.
While it’s important to recognize the atrocities of Tulsa to not repeat history, Mr. Biden leveraged the emotion surrounding the death and destruction of that tragic event in history to sell the idea that systemic racism is real in America today.
To say Mr. Biden’s Tulsa speech was divisive is an understatement.
After recognizing the survivors and descendants in the audience and paying tribute to those who senselessly lost lives and were harmed, Mr. Biden launched into a speech far from the amazing strides our country achieved through the years since.
References of rampant racism were weaved throughout Mr. Biden’s Tulsa speech.
A rather astounding remark by Mr. Biden was, “…terrorism from white supremacy is the most lethal threat to the homeland today, not Isis, not Al-Qaeda, white supremacists.”
While in Tulsa, Mr. Biden talked about known klansmen and segregationists in Congress during his early political career but failed to say he was not only pals with them but is on record fondly cherishing their memories.
Mr. Biden used this platform to stoke the flames of racism to further divide Americans and it is so unfortunate the Tulsa audience didn’t know the president’s racist past. The record shows Mr. Biden is not only a propagandist but a hypocrite.
Reviewing Mr. Biden’s record on race, it’s clear his only moral compass is himself and he will do anything to leverage race for power.
• Deneen Borelli is a Fox News contributor and author of “Blacklash.” For more information visit her website deneenborelli.com and on Twitter and CloutHub @deneenborelli.
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