In the wake of the racially motivated mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, that killed 22 and left more than two dozen injured, Democratic candidates have been vocal in their denouncement of President Donald Trump, whose rhetoric on immigration aligned with that of the mass shooter.
El Paso native Beto O’Rourke has been leading the charge, outwardly calling Trump a racist, saying he’s been once since before he began his campaign for president.
Today, while campaigning in Iowa, former Vice President Joe Biden was asked if he thinks Trump is a white supremacist. Biden, infamously, kicked off his campaign by invoking Trump’s rhetoric in the aftermath of the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Virginia, calling the president out for his sympathetic words toward neo-Nazi supporters.
Biden said everything the president says and does “encourages white supremacy,” which he felt was worse.
Joe Biden, asked whether he thinks Trump is a white supremacist: “I believe everything the president says and has done encourages white supremacists, and I’m not sure there’s much of a distinction. As a matter of fact, it may be even worse.”
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 8, 2019
Via ABC pic.twitter.com/9lneEXPHZa
But since he didn’t explicitly answer that question, Biden was asked again.
His response to if Trump is a white supremacist? “I’m Joe Biden.”
.@JoeBiden was asked again at the Iowa State Fair if he thinks Trump is a white supremacist, he responded: “Why are you so hooked on that? You want me to say the words so I sound like everybody else. I’m not everybody else. I’m Joe Biden. I’ve always been who I am…
— Johnny Verhovek (@JTHVerhovek) August 8, 2019
Joe Biden 2020. He’s Joe Biden.
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