Politics

Whether it’s Harry Reid, Trent Lott or Joe Biden, foot-in-mouth disease gets Washington talking

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
Font Size:

This week’s uproar over racially charged comments attributed to Sen. Harry Reid reminded The Daily Caller of other uncomfortable race-related flubs by Washington political types. Some highlights:

Trent Lott, Dec. 5, 2002

What he said:
“When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over the years, either,” Republican Lott said at a 100th birthday party for Thurmond.

The problem:
The segregationist Thurmond ran for president of the United States in 1948 as a Dixiecrat.

The reaction:
“He had no alternative. If you tell ethnic jokes in the backroom, it’s that much easier to say ethnic things publicly. I’ve always practiced how I play.”
— Sen. Harry Reid in a Dec. 20, 2002 Associated Press article, according to the Washington Examiner

“I know Trent Lott personally, and I know that this is not his intent. But it’s still unfortunate. And I think he needs to apologize a little bit more.”
— Then-Lt. Governor of Maryland Michael Steele quoted in the Washington Post, as reported by Politico

“It is not a small thing … for one of the half dozen most prominent political leaders in America to say that our problems are caused by integration and that we should have had a segregationist candidate. That is divisive and it is divisive along racial lines. That’s the definition of a racist comment.”
— Al Gore quoted on CNN on Dec. 10, 2002

Joe Biden, 2007

What he said:
Shortly after announcing his candidacy, then-Senator Joe Biden said in an interview — while discussing his rivals in the 2008 presidential election — that then-Senator Barack Obama was a promising candidate because he was “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean.”

The reaction
“I didn’t take Sen. Biden’s comments personally, but obviously they were historically inaccurate.”
— Then-Sen. Barack Obama in a Feb. 9 2007 written statement, according to a CNN article

“‘He is a clean African-American’?” Limbaugh asked. “If Biden thinks that Obama is clean then he has to think that others are not clean. Does he mean that he knows that Jesse Jackson is not clean? Does he mean that he knows that Reverend Sharpton is not clean? … See, folks, this is the problem for the libs. Once they get off script they expose their idiocy, they expose their prejudice.”
— Rush Limbaugh as quoted by ABC news on Jan. 31, 2007

“I told him I take a bath every day.”
— Al Sharpton as quoted in the Washington Post on Jan. 31, 2007 of his conversation with Biden

Harry Reid incident, January 2010

What he said:
Reid was quoted as saying that Obama could win the presidency because he is “light-skinned” and didn’t have a “Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”

The reaction:

“I guarantee you the average person — white or black — right now is less concerned about what Harry Reid said in a quote in a book a couple of years ago than they are about how we are going to move the country forward.”
— President Barack Obama in interview with TV One’s Roland Martin on Jan. 11

“There is this standard where Democrats feel they can say these things and apologize as long as it comes from one of their own and if it comes from somebody else, it’s racism.”
— RNC Chair Michael Steele on Fox News Sunday on Jan. 10

“I deeply regret using such a poor choice of words. I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African-Americans for my improper comments.”
— Sen. Harry Reid in a statement on Jan. 9

“That’s up to the voters of Nevada. I didn’t know those kind of words were still in American lexicon.”
— Sen. John McCain on Jan. 12 on NBC’s The Today Show when asked if Reid should step aside

“The point is he can get away with it, and others in the country couldn’t. I couldn’t get away with it. If I had said that I’d be toast.  There’s clearly a double standard here and the double standard benefits the people who I think are the genuine racists and bigots, and that’s the Democrats.”
— Rush Limbaugh on his radio show Jan. 11

“While there is no question that Senator Reid did not select the best word choice in this instance, these comments should not distract America from its continued focus on securing health care or creating jobs for its people.”
— Al Sharpton in a statement, reported by Politico, Jan. 9

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel