At a Friday fundraiser in Philadelphia, Vice President Joe Biden said that Republicans are employing a “blame the victim” strategy in addressing falling government revenue by cutting taxes and reducing spending.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Biden compared Republicans’ economic policies to insensitivity toward rape victims. “When a woman got raped, blame her because she was wearing a skirt too short,” Biden said, drawing a parallel.
“We’ve gotten by that,” Biden continued. “It’s amazing how these Republicans, the right wing of this party – whose philosophy threw us into this god-awful hole we’re in, gave us the tremendous deficit we’ve inherited – that they’re now using . . . the very economic condition they have created to blame the victim, whether it’s organized labor or ordinary middle-class working men and women. It’s bizarre.”
The Inquirer reported that the fundraiser netted $400,000 for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Penny Nance, CEO of the conservative Concerned Women for America, responded to Biden’s comments calling them classless and “childish.”
“Vice President Joe Biden is proof that success doesn’t necessarily guarantee class,” Nance wrote. “His remarks on Friday using the issue of rape for political points is beyond tasteless; it’s downright ignorant.”
Nance wrote, “To be clear, women in America overwhelmingly support bold efforts to cut government spending and to repay the $14 Trillion that has been stolen from our children and grandchildren.”