Juan Williams stopped short of giving a full defense of former Vice President Joe Biden after he apparently cracked a joke about black voters.
Biden, during an interview on the popular podcast “The Breakfast Club,” said, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, you ain’t black.”
Williams responded to the comments Friday on Fox News during a segment of “America’s Newsroom.” (RELATED: Juan Williams Defends Biden Gaffes By Turning The Spotlight On Trump)
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Anchor Sandra Smith played Biden’s comments, then turned to Williams for his response.
“He is kind of blunt, that’s the way he often works, a little bit too direct for my tastes,” Williams began, conceding that the way Biden phrased the comment was not great for the sake of optics, but then turned to defend Biden’s assessment of his support within the black community.
“The larger point is it was a January Washington Post poll said 83% of black Americans consider Trump to be racist, and if you look at the numbers in terms of support even recent polls show 92% of black Americans plan to vote for Biden, but I think the way he put it is so politically provocative as to not be smart,” Williams continued.
“I think the former Vice President Joe Biden’s attitude and what he just said is very reflective of how the Democratic Party feels about the African American vote,” Katie Pavlich added. “They take it for granted. Just because of the color of your skin, you should be voting a certain way and Joe Biden clearly portrayed that today.”
“The radio host is saying I’m not interested in being anti-Trump, I am interested in asking questions about what you are going to do for my community and Joe Biden’s answer to that was that he is apparently not black enough if he doesn’t vote for Joe Biden over President Trump,” Pavlich concluded.