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Accused of racism, Biden apologizes for saying ‘you ain’t black’ if you’d vote for Trump over him

Trump side pounces on gaffe-prone former VP, calling his comment condescending and insulting.

Updated at 3:10 p.m. with Biden’s apology and at 7:45 p.m. with Jackson Lee comments.

WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Joe Biden prompted an uproar Friday when he insisted that if any black voter doesn’t see him as the obvious pick over President Donald Trump, “you ain’t black.”

Hours later, he apologized. By then, the Trump campaign had pounced, arguing that this was no ordinary gaffe but an outrageous instance of race-baiting and condescension from the likely nominee of a party that both relies on black voters and at times takes that support for granted.

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“This was racially demeaning,” said Katrina Pierson, a senior adviser to Trump’s campaign and former Dallas-area tea party leader. “It’s very disturbing. … He truly believes that a 77-year-old white man should be able to dictate whether or not you’re black, based upon whether you support him or not.”

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The hashtags #youaintblack and #JoeBidenIsARacist exploded. In midafternoon, Biden apologized in a call with black business leaders.

“I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy,” he said on the call, hosted by the U.S. Black Chambers. “I shouldn’t have been so cavalier.”

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The effort at damage control came after hours of pummeling by critics and hand-wringing by Democrats suddenly reminded of Biden’s ability to put his foot in his mouth, and his evolution from anti-busing, law-and-order senator to right-hand man to the first black president.

The Trump campaign hastily organized a call with media to hear from Pierson and another prominent supporter, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the only black Republican in the Senate.

“I was struck by the condescension and the arrogance,” Scott said, calling on Democrats to disavow the comments. “That is as arrogant and offensive and demeaning as I can imagine. … This is the type of negative, race-baiting rhetoric that is the lowest denominator in this nation, and it’s got to stop.”

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In his apology, Biden called his choice of words “unfortunate” and said he was trying to make a point contrasting his record with Trump’s.

“I am prepared to put my record against his. That was the bottom line,” he said, emphasizing that he recognizes the need to earn votes: “I have never, ever taken the African American community for granted.”

Symone Sanders, a senior adviser to Biden, had tried to tamp down the uproar hours earlier by asserting that the comment was “made in jest" — spin that Scott said he wouldn’t dignify with a response.

Biden’s comment came during a testy exchange on The Breakfast Club, a nationally syndicated morning show popular with black millennials. The host, Charlamagne Tha God, pressed him on reports that he was considering Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is white, as his running mate even though black voters “saved your political life in the primaries.”

Indeed, Biden’s campaign was foundering by the time the South Carolina primary came around. The majority of Democrats there are black, and he scored a solid win after embarrassing finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, where the electorates are overwhelmingly white.

Biden responded by saying he was considering “multiple black women.”

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Among those, reportedly, are Sen. Kamala Harris of California; Stacey Abrams, who lost the Georgia governor’s race in 2018; and Susan Rice, who was President Barack Obama’s national security adviser.

Voters who compare his record to Trump’s, Biden said, should have no trouble picking him.

"If you've got a problem figuring out whether you're for me or for Trump, then you ain't black,” he said.

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Biden’s self-inflicted wound was a gift to the reelection effort of a president who has long faced allegations of racism, overt and otherwise.

As a developer in New York City in 1989, he advocated loudly for execution of the Central Park Five, the five black and Latino men who as teenagers were convicted — wrongly, it later turned out — in the brutal rape of a woman who’d gone jogging in the park. As president, Trump refused to apologize for that stance, despite their exoneration.

When white supremacists clashed with counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Va., early in his term, he insisted that there were “very fine people on both sides.”

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Black activists and political leaders viewed it as racist when Trump referred to “s---hole countries" in Africa and suggested that four Democratic congresswomen of color should “go back” to where they came from, even though all are U.S. citizens and three were born in the United States.

Some progressives and supporters of former Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders criticized Biden’s comments. Sanders’ former presidential campaign press secretary, Briahna Joy Gray, who is black, tweeted criticism throughout the day Friday.

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a Trump ally, joined in on the public disapproval.

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“This is the respect that today’s Dems show African Americans. The other party, the party of Lincoln, welcomes everybody and values you as individuals, free to choose your own faith, your education, your profession, your savings, your life,” he tweeted.

On MSNBC, Symone Sanders, the Biden adviser, noted that before the controversial remark, Biden had discussed criminal justice and lots of other topics of interest to voters with Charlamagne.

“He earned the votes of folks in this primary, in the Democratic primary. Black voters especially," she said. “And he expects and will do the same thing … in this general election.”

On Fox News, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat who is part of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Biden did the right thing by apologizing.

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“The right thing to do was to own up that it might not have been as funny as [he] might have thought,” she said. “The vice president knows that he can’t take any community for granted, and particularly the African-American community. I don’t believe he, in any way, is insensitive to the needs of this community, particularly in what we’re going through right now with COVID-19, the enormous amount of mortality rates in our community.”