Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said that Charlamagne, host of the radio show “The Breakfast Club,” was being “a wise guy” when he interviewed him Friday.
“First of all … it was a mistake, number one,” Biden told CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer” on Tuesday. “And I was smiling when he asked me the question. I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy — he was being a wise guy, and I responded in kind. I shouldn’t have done that; it was a mistake.”
Biden suggested to Charlamagne on Friday that he “ain’t black” if he was still figuring out whether he was voting for President Donald Trump or the former vice president.
Biden told CNN that he has “never taken the African-American community for granted, never, never, never once,” adding that he has received “overwhelming” support from black voters throughout his political career that began as a Democratic senator from Delaware. (RELATED: Sen. Tim Scott: Does Joe Biden Really Believe That Every Poor Kid ‘Has To Be Black?‘)
When asked if that support will continue after making such a remark, Biden responded that he thinks he deserves “their look … in comparison to anybody else running.”
Biden claimed he has worked “like hell” to advance the “African-American agenda — dealing with everything from making sure their houses are as valuable as the same white person’s house in a white neighborhood. I’m making sure, we’re working on education. I’ve been arguing for years that it’s not fair. So I have to earn it.”
Biden apologized Friday soon after he made the comment. (RELATED: Van Jones Tells Democrats To ‘Wake Up’: Trump Is ‘Causing Us Problems’ With the Black Vote)
Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden is seen at War Memorial Plaza during Memorial Day, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in New Castle, Delaware, U.S. May 25, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Biden advisor Symone Sanders also addressed the comments, tweeting: “Vice President Biden spent his career fighting alongside and for the African American community … The comments made at the end of the Breakfast Club interview were in jest, but 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.”
Biden has a less than ideal record on civil rights: he once declared that segregation was a source of “black pride” and opposed mandatory school busing as a means of integrating classrooms.