Marie Harf and Harris Faulkner clashed Friday over comments former Vice President Joe Biden made about black voters.
Biden, during an interview for “The Breakfast Club,” said, “If you don’t know whether you’re for me or Trump, you ain’t black” — and both Harf and Faulkner responded to Biden’s comments during a segment of “Outnumbered.” (RELATED: ‘Nothing Could Be Further From The Truth’: Lara Logan Squares Off With Marie Harf On Michael Flynn)
WATCH:
“So, this is his senior campaign advisor, Symone Sanders, tweeting, ‘The comments made at the end of the Breakfast Club interview were in jest. Let’s be clear about what the VP was saying. He was making the distinction that he would put his record with the African-American community up against Trump’s any day, period,'” host Melissa Francis began, turning the question to Harf. “Was what he said racist?”
“Well, it definitely was not racist,” Harf replied, adding that she did feel Biden’s comments had been inappropriate and thought that he should probably offer an apology. “We all say things on television or radio interviews that maybe we would like to take back,” she added.
Harf went on to defend Biden’s record with the black community, saying once more that she believed he ought to clarify his remarks.
Francis then turned the question to Faulkner, who disagreed with Harf’s position. (RELATED: Harris Faulkner Forced To Referee As Guests Square Off Over Coronavirus Response)
“I’ve been fighting against this notion that you are not black enough unless you think a certain way, you vote a certain way, you speak a certain way, you do certain things,” Faulkner said. “My whole life, I grew up military. Pretty much neutral along the zone of, can’t we all just get along no matter what we look like? I have biracial daughters. Melissa, you know them.”
“This is more than just a little offensive. It is shortsighted, it is a blind spot for this former vice president,” Faulkner continued, saying that Biden should have taken the opportunity to clarify his statement immediately, while the interview was still going on. “He should have gotten up immediately on whatever venue, microphone he had.”
Faulkner went on to read a portion of a statement from Trump campaign advisor Katrina Pierson on behalf of Black Voices for Trump.
White liberal elitists have continuously dictated which black Americans are allowed to come to the table and have a voice. It is clear now more than ever, following these racist and dehumanizing remarks, that Joe Biden believes black men and women are incapable of being independent or freethinking. He truly believes that a 77-year-old white man should dictate how black people should behave. Biden has a history of racial condescension, and today he once again proved that a growing number of black Americans, and I’ve always known Joe Biden does not deserve our votes.
“You don’t have to be any particular race to know when someone puts you down because you’re different,” Faulkner concluded.