News / Politics

Biden recants ‘racist and dehumanizing’ remarks about black voters

Friday, 22 May 2020 10:35 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 22 May 2020 11:44 PM ]

In this file photo taken on March 12, 2020 former US Vice President and Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden speaks about COVID-19 during a press event in Wilmington, Delaware. (AFP photo)

The US Democratic Party's presumptive nominee Joe Biden has apologized for making what President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign called “racist and dehumanizing,” about African-American voters.

Biden on Friday told a black radio host that African-Americans "ain't black" if they are not sure who to support in November's election. His remarks sparked accusations of racism.

“White liberal elitists have continuously dictated which black Americans are allowed to come to the table and have a voice,” said Katrina Pierson, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign and leader of its Black Voices for Trump group.

“It is clear now more than ever, following these racist and dehumanizing remarks, that Joe Biden believes black men and women are incapable of being independent or free thinking,” Pierson added.

“He truly believes that he, a 77-year-old white man, should dictate how black people should behave. Biden has a history of racial condescension and today he once again proved what a growing number of black Americans and I have always known — Joe Biden does not deserve our votes.”

Biden, who made the remarks during a contentious radio interview on Friday, later apologized for it.

"I shouldn't have been such a wise guy. I shouldn't have been so cavalier," he said on a call with black business leaders.

"I have never, ever taken the African-American community for granted," he reportedly told members of the Black Chamber of Commerce.

Biden’s new controversy comes as pressure is already mounting on him to respond to a sexual assault allegation made by a former Senate aide in the 1990s.

Tara Reade, 56, claims that the sexual assault occurred in 1993, when she was a 29-year-old staff assistant for Biden, then a US senator from Delaware.

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"His hands were on me and underneath my clothes and, yeah, he went, he went down my skirt but then up inside it and he penetrated me with his fingers," Reade said in a late March interview on the Katie Halper Show podcast.

Biden has not been asked directly about the allegation in the online events and interviews conducted from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, where he has been confined due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Other women have accused Biden of touching or embracing them inappropriately in the past.

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