Joe Biden is backtracking on that garnered him a ton of backlash this week, in which he told Charlamagne Tha God during an interview on The Breakfast Club that black voters who would choose Trump over him “ain’t black.” On Friday (May 22nd), the Democratic presidential candidate finally agreed to make a virtual appearance on the radio show after turning down numerous requests for an interview. At one point during their chat, the host invited Biden to return to the show before the election in November in order to answer any more questions that voters might have. However, Biden insisted that nobody should be experiencing any uncertainty about who to vote for at this point.
“You got more questions?” he asked Charlamagne, before declaring, “I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”
The comments were subject to major scrutiny, as folks pointed out how his remarks that a black voter “ain’t black” simply because they might be hesitant to elect him into office proved how much some Democrats take support from the Black community for granted.
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Biden later expressed his regret for what he said during a conference call with the Black Chamber of Commerce. “I should not have been so cavalier. I’ve never, never, ever taken the African-American community for granted,” he said. “I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy.” Biden’s campaign senior adviser, Symone Sanders, also made a statement regarding the “ain’t black” remark. “Vice President Biden spent his career fighting alongside and for the African American community,” she tweeted. “He won his party’s nomination by earning every vote and meeting people where they are and that’s exactly what he intends to do this November.”
“The comments made at the end of the Breakfast Club interview were in jest,” she continued, “but let’s be clear about what the VP was saying: he was making the distinction that he would put his record with the African American community up against Trump’s any day. Period.”