The gaffe-prone former vice president was roundly criticized on Twitter for a strange remark in which he questioned what might have happened if former President Barack Obama had been assassinated.
Former Vice President and 2020 front runner Joe Biden was at an event in New Hampshire, talking about the new generation of young people who have been energized to political activism over President Trump’s election. Biden compared the resistance movement to similar activism he’d seen after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy.
“I only had two political heroes, one hero was my dad, my two political heroes were Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy,” Biden said during an event in New Hampshire on Friday “My senior semester, they were both shot and killed. … Imagine what would have happened if, God forbid, if Barack Obama had been assassinated after becoming the de facto nominee, What would have happened in America? Things changed.”
Biden was dragged on Twitter for the strange remark, but his campaign team pushed back, saying it was just a gaffe-y way of pointing out the trauma of those past assassinations.
Matt – He was putting into perspective, for the young folks in the room, about how traumatic the assassinations of RFK and MLK were for the country. This tweet is chasing clicks. https://t.co/K7cY4NeWyM
— Symone D. Sanders (@SymoneDSanders) August 24, 2019
This is a sleazy headline. He was talking about the turmoil of the late 60s and asking young people to imagine what the MLK and RFK assassinations did to the country. People deserve responsibility from their news outlets. https://t.co/kMHhoQyoAu
— Kate Bedingfield (@KBeds) August 24, 2019
I would challenge reporters tweeting about this to ask a single person in that room today what their takeaway from the event was.
I guarantee it wasn’t this. https://t.co/CW1e7J0ZN1
— Meira Bernstein (@Meirabb) August 24, 2019
Initially a bit of an odd line of discussion - but context appears to provide a bit of clarity - and then add in the context of the current times that we live in and the point that seems to have been made - is thoroughly understandable. Ponder for just a moment the nightmarish level of civil unrest & disarray that could unfold if a major heinous ugly act of violence were to happen to a key leader - and the nation had to look to Mr Tiny Hands Trumpstool for stability … an incoherent egotistical opportunist thoroughly in capable of showing authentic compassion or calming any situation.
What makes this something more than a run of the mill even innocuous Biden gaffe even after clarification that the country would’ve once again been traumatized is that there were people out there who might’ve taken a shot at BHO if he had not been surrounded by what was essentially an armored limo. That’s in addition to the gazillion men (and women) with guns also surrounding him at all times. I can’t believe BHO didn’t get death threats, and I seem to remember a couple of incidents where people scaled the fence and got onto the WH grounds.
I’m probably reading too much into Biden’s statement, but it hits me that Biden "only had two political heroes, one hero was my dad, my two political heroes were Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy.” MLK for sure. Bobby Kennedy I liked too, but he was cut down before his potential.
So Obama was not a political hero for Biden?
If Biden wanted to empathize with youth about the loss of heros, why wouldn’t he name a recent persona, Obama as a ‘hero’, who he worked closely with for 8+ years?
I do not subscribe to the concept of ‘heros’, but maybe that is why Obama appears lukewarm about Biden. There seems to be something between these two guys. I do think Obama did more for this country than any other President in modern times, and Biden should have said so, but… he flubbed it.
I am stuck with why was this line of communication was incorporated in a campaign speech, anyway! It kinda of makes me wonder about his sanity and thus his ability to be POTUS.
Doesn’t seem as if Uncle Biden is practicing his responses. If he did spend more time practicing, he’d probably gaffe a lot less.
no offense intended here - but I think you are over looking the time context of his comment - it is pretty clear that he was speaking about the political perspective & political heroes that he had in the era around approximately 1968 - the heroes of his youth - the people he idolized - note he goes on to say:
“My senior semester, they were both shot and killed.
Would imagine that if you said " over the course of your entire life - what political figures do you revere & respect " - certainly other names like Obama, McCain, and others would come up
Biden’s not my choice - - and he does have a knack for brain farts / odd comments / cringe worthy statements. But framing this as Biden displaying little regard for Obama seems like a stretch