PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Yes, he said it. Joe Biden, who once again was allowed to escape the safety and security of his basement, was speaking to an economic roundtable in Philadelphia on Thursday.
He was talking about the George Floyd death in part at the hands of Minneapolis police, and said that the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did not have the same global impact as that of Floyd. He really said that.
The New York Post said that Biden was talking about how cellphones have changed how people are now able to document police brutality, and the fact that Floyd’s death was captured on cellphone video.
He said that the use of cellphones was able to document incidents such as this in the same way that television was able to capture the sights and sounds of the 1960’s civil rights fight.
“Even Dr. King’s assassination did not have the worldwide impact that George Floyd’s death did,” Biden said.
Speaking of cellphones, Biden said, “It changed the way everybody’s looking at this.”
What happened to George Floyd—now you got how many people around the country, millions of cellphones. It’s changed the way everybody’s looking at this,” he said. “Look at the millions of people marching around the world.”
“It’ just like television changed the civil rights movement for the better when they saw Bull Connor and his dogs ripping the clothes off elderly black women going to church and firehoses ripping the skin off of young kids,” Biden continued.
First of all, fact check. According to Westward Bound blog, as well as the New York Daily News, while fire hoses were used on civil rights protesters in Birmingham, there is no record that they in fact had fire hoses “ripping the skin off young kids.”
So, could that have happened? Possibly. But given Biden’s propensity for stretching the truth, along with the fact that he’s, shall we say a bit confused these days, it may or may not have in fact occurred.
But let’s get back to him comparing George Floyd, a several times convicted criminal to Dr. King is over the top.
While Floyd’s death has indeed sparked mass demonstrations across the U.S., as well as in some other countries around the world, one would have to be making a pretty big stretch to compare the two.
Floyd’s death has also put Biden in a bad position of having to walk a fine line between the far-left wacko’s in the Democratic party and independents, who he will need to attract in order to have a chance of defeating President Trump.
The far-left wing of the Democratic party, embodied in the person of leftist loons like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar are on a mission to defund the police. In fact, Omar has asked to completely disband the Minneapolis Police Department. Biden has come out against defunding of police. This puts him squarely at odds with the increasingly radical base of the Democratic party.
Biden also has his own history to confront. Biden was one of the main proponents of the 1994 Crime Bill, which he actually co-authored. That bill has been blamed in part for the significant increase in African Americans who have been imprisoned.
Fox News said that on June 1, he met with black community leaders in Wilmington, Del., where he faced criticism for his support of that bill. He was also being pressured to pick a black female for a running mate, qualifications be damned.
“Over the eight years you were vice president there was lots of successes, but the African American community did not experience the same economic opportunity and upward mobility that they did in the ‘90’s,” said state senator Darius Brown to Biden.
Biden’s support of the Crime Bill was also addressed by Rev. Shanika Perry, youth pastor of Bethel AME Church, particularly concerns that young people possess.
“It’s been difficult to serve as a surrogate to them because they have great issues with the participation in that. And so, they want to know how do you plan to undo the impact of mass incarceration and the things that have resulted from that particular crime bill?” she asked Biden.
Biden said that he would set up a “police oversight board” in his first 100 days as president.
In addressing Biden’s ridiculous comparison between Dr. King and George Floyd, the niece of Dr. King said that Biden was “speaking from a different reality” in comparing the two, according to Fox News.
“I believe that Mr. Biden continues to speak from his basement, from a reality that is different from what’s happening in the real world,” said Alveda King in an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation published Friday.
“Why is it necessary to compare Martin Luther King Jr. and George Floyd?”
“George Floyd was killed unjustly. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed unjustly. My father Reverend Alfred Daniel Williams King was killed unjustly,” she said.
“My grandmother, Alberta Williams King, was killed unjustly. I mourn and grieve with the family of George Floyd. I still miss my beloved family members.”
Ms. King continued and told the Daily Caller that the death of Floyd had been used to “bring about anarchy,” while saying that the proper response to his death should have been love, not violence.
“Jesus Christ hung on the cross between two felons, one felon said, ‘Remember me’ and Jesus said to him, ‘You will be with me in paradise today,’” she said. “That’s Jubilee. That’s what Jesus was about. That’s what Martin Luther King Jr. was about.”
I wonder if Uncle Joe, as they call him, understands jubilee and redemption,” she continued.
Dr. King of course was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. In 1968, a killing that touched off riots in numerous cities across the United States.
Ms. King had also expressed sadness in an op-ed for Fox News on May 31, expressing disappointment that a quote attributed to Dr. King had been coopted and was being taken out of context; “Violence is the language of the unheard.”
“MLK spoke those words in defense of non-violence; he refused to promote violence as a solution to the ills of society,” she said.
Ms. King spoke of America being “in a season of repentance and revival,” and spoke of the importance for spiritual leaders to “lead the way in repentance and prayer.”
“Thankfully, spiritual leaders are recognizing that we are in a battle of evil against good. Of course, good always prevails in the end. God is good. As member of one common race—the human race—we continue to fight this battle. We should unite, fighting as one with our spirits, souls and bodies in full engagement.”
Ms. King closed her op-ed with Dr. King’s famous words, which those who are currently destroying our cities and targeting all police officers should heed.
“As my uncle, the prophet Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.—who was also killed by a white man—famously said, he dreamt of a world where people ‘will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.’ Amen.”
George Floyd did not deserve to die the way he did. Nobody disputes that. But to somehow give him equal footing with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, or in this case elevated status above Dr. King shows a level of ignorance that is something we have come to expect from Joe Biden.
He needs to retract this short-sighted and ill-informed statement. George Floyd couldn’t hold Dr. King’s water.
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