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Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden used the N-word 13 times while quoting others during in a 1985 hearing, according to a report from Breitbart.
Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democrat presidential nominee, has a long career in politics, much of which is preserved in U.S. Senate transcripts.
Biden was caught on video twice quoting the N-word:
During the Senate hearing, Biden was questioning William Reynolds, then-President Ronald Reagan’s assistant attorney general for civil rights.
In Biden’s line of questioning to Reynolds in these 1985 hearings, Biden repeatedly brought up a quote including the N-word and kept using the N-word in the quote.
Here’s the quote allegedly stated by then-Republican Rep. Charles Emile Bruneau of New Orleans, which was then quoted by Biden multiple times: “We already have a n***** mayor (in New Orleans), and we don’t need another n***** bigshot.”
More context from Breitbart News:
While some people circulating the video left out the context that includes proof Biden was not using the N-word himself but quoting someone else saying it, the mere question as to if that is even acceptable has dogged politicians for some time. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, for instance, faced questions last year over his use of the word in a book in the late 1990s, especially from leftists and Democrats on Twitter:
”They were given ‘niggers’ to hate and look down on, ‘niggers’ who couldn’t vote, drink at their water fountains…” I get what @BernieSanders was writing about white Southern workers, but he didn’t need to go full Tarantino. Or be defensive about it now. https://t.co/xRC46I2qbU
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) September 7, 2019
Hey white people?
Stop saying ‘nigger’. Unless you are directly quoting someone, do not say that word. EVER.
Briahna Joy Gray’s attempted defense of Bernie Sanders’ use of that word is such an embarrassment. Jesus Christ.
What is even happening.
— Imani Gandy ☄️🌏🔥 (@AngryBlackLady) September 7, 2019
Let me just explain where we are right now.
I have had Bernie stans in my mentions for 3 days explaining how it’s ok that he used the word nigger in 1997, and then again in 2015 when he reprinted the book and released an audio version.
That’s where we are. So we’re all clear.
— Imani Gandy ☄️🌏🔥 (@AngryBlackLady) September 9, 2019
Ridiculous defense. Sanders wasn't critiquing racism – he was excusing it in the pursuit of an economic argument. And the use of the N word was gratuitous, and wildly unecessary. He was quoting no one. https://t.co/fhbCl98Z2e
— Tom Watson (@tomwatson) September 7, 2019
In fact, MSNBC’s Joy Reid—who on Monday evening takes over the primetime slot that former anchor Chris Matthews vacated—has repeatedly argued publicly that it is never acceptable for white men to use the N-word even when quoting someone else. Biden will appear on Reid’s new primetime program, The ReidOut, at 7:00 p.m. on Monday night—and it is unclear if she will ask him about this. Biden’s campaign has not responded to requests for comment from Breitbart News about these instances of his repeated use of the N-word in U.S. Senate hearings. But Reid has called out other politicians, including former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), when they have used it and has a long history of being opposed to any white people using it in any context, even if quoting someone else:
You’ve been DYING to say it, haven’t you, Joe. You probably say it on your own all the time. Well your hood is off now. We see you. https://t.co/AXrR7X7r3L
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) October 1, 2017
Perhaps the most important "I have a black friend" rule just stated on @MHPshow: you don't get to use the n-word. Nope. Never. #nerdland
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) August 11, 2013
Two things we keep re-learning:
1. There is no n-word pass. (They are all imaginary);
2. Race is still the #1 source of American discomfort.— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) June 3, 2017
https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/871085828260417536
There are many examples of MSNBC host Joy Reid as well as many other who condemn the use of the N-word in all forms, including quotations.
The context of Biden repeatedly using this word happened on the backdrop of his laying the groundwork for his first run for the White House, a doomed 1988 presidential campaign. While he did not even make it all the way to the actual primaries in 1988—he dropped out in 1987 amid concerns he plagiarized throughout his early political career—Biden was in the mid-1980s barnstorming the American South, showing common cause with segregationists concerning racial issues.
In 1986 in Alabama, for example, as Breitbart News has reported, Biden downplayed civil rights as he prepared to run for president. He spent years before that currying favor with segregationists, and also in 1986 in a speech in Baltimore to the NAACP, he pushed for the group to “move beyond” busing as an issue to integrate American schools. It cost him politically at the beginning of the Democrat primaries as Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), his one-time opponent who is now vying to be his running mate, attacked Biden on the debate stage at the first Democrat primary debate over busing.
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