Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden refuses to answer questions about an outdated racial term he used in a viral clip from a 2017 video.
The video clip shows Biden surrounded by Black women and children at a pool renaming ceremony in Wilmington, Delaware.
Biden regaled the crowd with a colorful story about the time he worked as a lifeguard at a desegregated swimming pool back in the day.
“By the way, you know, I sit on the stand, and it get[s] hot. I got a lot, I got hairy legs that turn blonde in the sun, and the kids used to come up and reach in the pool and rub my leg down so it was straight and then watch the hair come back up again. They’d look at it. So I learned about roaches. I learned about kids jumping on my lap. And I love kids jumping on my lap.”
The video clip didn’t generate interest in the mainstream news media. But Black Twitter questioned what the 77-year-old Democratic candidate meant when he uttered the term “roaches” while surrounded by Black children.
Many questioned the timing of the video clip, which resurfaced online after former President Barack Obama made it clear that Biden is not his choice for the Democratic nominee.
Biden doesn’t bond with voters, Obama allegedly said during a meeting with presidential hopefuls in his D.C. office earlier this year.
Famed radio host and attorney Larry Elder wondered aloud in a rhetorical tweet, “And if @realDonaldTrump referred to blacks kid as “ROACHES”? [sic].
Biden’s history of insensitive racial remarks continues to plague his campaign, already hobbled by his son Hunter Biden’s inconvenient comedy of errors.
During his early days in the U.S. Senate, Biden was strongly opposed to busing to desegregate schools. He warned busing would lead to a “racial jungle.”
California Senator Kamala Harris, who dropped out of the 2020 presidential race last week, confronted Biden during a tense Democratic primary debate in June.
“I do not believe you are a racist,” she said, as she criticized his praise for staunch segregationists like Senators James Eastland and Herman Talmadge.
“But it was hurtful to hear you talk [about] the reputations of two United States Senators who built their reputations and career on segregation of race in this country.”
“And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing. And you know, there was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.”
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