Cory Booker slams Joe Biden's 'kid wearing a hoodie' remarks'

Cory Booker took Joe Biden to task after the former vice president made seemingly out-dated comments about kids in hoodies not becoming 'gang-bangers' but 'poet laureates.' 

The Democratic nomination hopeful took to his Twitter to share his thoughts, emphasizing that a culture already exists that has seen a problem with kids wearing the clothing item .

'This isn’t about a hoodie,' Booker declared in a Friday tweet. 'It’s about a culture that sees a problem with a kid wearing a hoodie in the first place. Our nominee needs to have the language to talk about race in a far more constructive way.' 

His tweet comes after Joe Biden attempted to defend his civil rights record on Friday, pledging to be a 'president who stands against racism' and 'the forces of intolerance' but ended up using questionable language in doing so. 

Even while defending his own record, Mr Biden still courted controversy with goofs in his choice of words.

Speaking to the Reverend Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Push Coalition, the white former vice president said he envisioned a society in which everyone realizes the 'kid in the hoodie might be the next poet laureate and not a gang-banger.'

The 'gang-banger' remark was a reminder of his loose and undisciplined approach to language and a tendency to say things that he doesn't think will offend his generation, but that conjure very different images among others, especially young Americans.

Biden was working to repair the damage from a blistering attack from California Senator Kamala Harris, the lone black woman in the 2020 presidential race.

During Thursday night's presidential debate, Harris criticized Biden for recently highlighting his decades-old work with segregationist senators and his opposition to busing school pupils during the 1970s, creating a dramatic and deeply personal breakout moment.

Biden faltered in response, then cut himself off, saying: 'My time is up. I'm sorry.' 

Although he was referring to the few seconds granted by moderators on the crowded debate stage, his words went viral on Twitter as a symbolic admission that he is a man of yesteryear in a party demanding radical change. 

Biden also went onto speak of his 'two heroes,' Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. 

He told how he quit his job with 'a prestigious law firm' in order to become a public defender before being elected to Congress.

'One of the first things I did was to go on the committee to strengthen the Voting Rights Act. I voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1990 to ban employment discrimination,' he said, before touting his two terms as Barack Obama's vice president.

'I heard, and I listened to, and I respect Senator Harris,' Biden said.

'But we all know that 30 seconds to 60 seconds on a campaign debate exchange can't do justice to a lifetime commitment to civil rights.'

Biden has surged to the top of the Democratic pack arguing that he is best positioned to defeat President Donald Trump because he can build a broad coalition of support.

Appearances such as the one with Jackson, his one-time rival in the 1988 Democratic presidential primary, will signal whether Harris' attack will chip into his support among African Americans.

He acknowledged the critical role of black voters and labor unions on Friday, saying: 'Y'all are the ones that brung me to the dance.'

Biden pushed back against some of Harris' specific criticisms, including her argument that he once opposed busing, a measure intended to alleviate racial segregation.

He said he was more opposed to federal intervention in busing than the practice itself.

'I never, never, never, ever opposed voluntary busing,' Mr Biden said, adding that he supported federal legislation to 'address root causes of segregation in our schools' and that he was always 'in favor of using federal authority to overcome state-initiated segregation', even in bygone days when it was not popular.

Biden campaign officials publicly and privately downplayed the flap with Harris as an example of a trailing candidate trying to draw attention.

'People were going to take swings at him, trying to create a moment, trying to score their points,' said Kate Bedingfield, Biden's communications director. 

As Biden himself has said, he does not expect to simply waltz to the nomination, and his campaign has stressed there are several more debates to come before the nominating contests.

The polling gap between Biden and Harris was immense going into the debate. According to Real Clear Politics, Biden held a 25-percentage-point lead over Harris nationally. And he has led in every early voting state.

Rodell Mollineau, a Democratic consultant and once a top aide to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said Biden is fortunate his debate struggles occurred early in the nominating process.

'There's time for any candidate to course-correct,' he said. However, Mollineau said, Biden's campaign must view Harris' attack as 'more than a warning shot.'

'It does not get any easier from here, so he has to be prepared,' he said.

California lawyer Tom McInerney signed up to be on Biden's national finance team but said he notified the campaign this month that he was withdrawing his support.

He pointed to what he called repeated missteps, including Biden's comments on segregationists and the former vice president's recent reversal on the Hyde Amendment, a long-standing congressional ban on using federal health care money to pay for abortions.

His reversal, he now says he opposes the amendment, came after rivals and women's rights group blasted him for affirming through campaign aides that he still supported the decades-old budget provision.

'I have tremendous respect for the vice president. However, I just became increasingly troubled by his comments,' McInerney said.

'It just seems like he wasn't thinking this through.'

Biden's campaign offered no immediate comment on Mr McInerney's withdrawal.

Also during Friday's event, Mr Biden leaned heavily on being Barack Obama's vice president, something he did not do as much during the debate, when Harris' relentless criticism often left him flustered and seemingly unsure of what to say.

'My president gets much too little credit for all that he did. He was one of the great presidents of the United States of America, and I'm tired of hearing about what he didn't do,' Biden said of Obama.

Sylvia Chapman, 60, of Chicago, attended Biden's speech and said Thursday's confrontation between Ms Harris and Mr Biden was 'just a few minutes of talk'.

'You have to look at the whole picture, not just one chapter out of a book,' said Chapman, who is black and is the president of a union local in Chicago.

She said she was undecided about who to support in 2020, but Mr Biden is among the top of her choices, along with Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Harris.

Patricia Ousley, 69, a black retired state employee from the Chicago suburb of South Holland, cheered loudly when Biden told the crowd Obama does not get the credit he deserves.

She said Biden's experience working alongside Obama is a big reason she may support him in 2020: 'I love that.'

Source: Daily Mail

Powered by NewsAPI.org

Keywords:

Cory Booker • Joe Biden • Hoodie • Cory Booker • Joe Biden • Vice President of the United States • Poetry • Democracy • Twitter • Culture • Child • Hoodie • Culture • Child • Hoodie • Profanity • Race (human categorization) • Joe Biden • Civil and political rights • President of the United States • Racism • Toleration • Joe Biden • Abortion-rights movements • Jesse Jackson • Andrew Jackson • Rainbow/PUSH • White people • Vice President of the United States • Hoodie • United States Poet Laureate • Gang • Gang • Free will • Young Americans (TV series) • California • United States Senate • Kamala Harris • United States presidential election, 2016 • United States presidential debates • Harris Interactive • Joe Biden • Racial segregation • United States Senate • Twitter • Joe Biden • Martin Luther King Jr. • Robert F. Kennedy • Law firm • Public defender • United States Congress • Voting Rights Act of 1965 • Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Employment discrimination • Barack Obama • Vice President of the United States • United States Senate • Joe Biden • Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States • Civil and political rights • Joe Biden • Democracy • Donald Trump • Andrew Jackson • Harris County, Texas • African Americans • African Americans • Labor unions in the United States • Racial segregation • Never Never Never • Legislation • Racial segregation • Federation • Authority • State (polity) • Racial segregation • Joe Biden • Waltz • Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016 • Joe Biden • United States presidential debates • RealClearPolitics • Joe Biden • Percentage point • Harris County, Texas • Early voting • United States elections, 2016 • Democratic Party (United States) • United States Senate • Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives • Harry Reid • Time (magazine) • Joe Biden • Warning shot • California Lawyer • Tom McInerney • Racial segregation • Vice President of the United States • Appeal • Hyde Amendment • Huey Long • Standing (law) • United States Congress • Federal judiciary of the United States • Health care in the United States • Abortion • Appeal • Constitutional amendment • Women's rights • Vice President of the United States • Jay McInerney • Jay McInerney • Joe Biden • Barack Obama • Vice President of the United States • Harris Interactive • My President • The Presidents of the United States of America (band) • Chicago • Joe Biden • Joe Biden • Chicago • Joe Biden • United States Senate • Bernie Sanders • Elizabeth Warren • African Americans • Chicago • Suburb • South Holland, Illinois • Barack Obama • Barack Obama •