Biden says he’s “changed” since his days in the Senate

FAN Editor

In a new campaign speech, former Vice President Joe Biden will say that he has “changed” since he entered the Senate in the 1970s, according to excerpts provided by his campaign. Biden will speak to supporters during a campaign stop in Sumter on Saturday. 

Biden, who is 76, has been criticized for his age and political positions earlier in his career.

“America in 2019 is a very different place than the America of the 1970s. And that’s a good thing. I’ve witnessed an incredible amount of change in this nation and I’ve worked to make that change happen. And yes — I’ve changed also,” the excerpt said.

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Biden will also push back against criticism against his time in the Senate by noting his service as vice president to President Obama, who remains very popular in the Democratic Party and among black Democratic voters in particular.

“If you look at the issues I’ve been attacked on, nearly every one of them is for something well before 2008. It’s as if my opponents want you to believe I served from 1972 until 2008 — and then took the next eight years off. They don’t want to talk much about my time as vice president,” the excerpt said.

Biden has been under increased scrutiny since the first primary debate at the end of June, when Sen. Kamala Harris challenged him over his relationships with segregationist senators and his opposition to federally imposed busing in the 1970s. In an interview with CNN on Friday, Biden said he was surprised by the way Harris came at him in the debate.

“I was prepared for them to come after me but I wasn’t prepared for the person who came at me the way she came at me,” Biden said. 

Biden also defended his position on busing, saying that he supported busing in response to de jure segregation — that is, segregation imposed by law.

“If the court ruled or there was a law passed or a circumstance that a county a city or a state did that prevented black folks from being somewhere, then that is wrong and you should bus,” Biden told CNN. “I even went so far, in the middle of that busing controversy, as saying use helicopters if that was necessary to make the point.”

During the campaign, Biden has also been criticized for his role as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Anita Hill hearings in 1991, and his support for the infamous 1994 crime bill which disproportionately affected black Americans. However, he remains the frontrunner in most state and national polls, although his lead is waning.

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