Politics

Biden Likens Cultural Effects Of Trump’s 2016 Victory To RFK’s Assassination

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Former Vice President Joe Biden compared President Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory to the assassinations of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

Trump’s victory awakened the millennial generation to the importance of getting involved in politics, Biden said in an interview Saturday. The former vice president is one of 25 prominent Democrats running against Trump in 2020.

“I think what’s happening now is, I think that Donald Trump may have reawakened sensibilities in this country to say, ‘Whoa, maybe we can do this now, just like our generation was awakened when Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated,'” Biden said during an interview Saturday in South Carolina. “Our whole generation said I’m back in, man.”

He added: “These millennials — they get it.”

Biden beat back criticism Thursday after he told a crowd of donors that former Democratic Georgia Sen. Herman Talmadge was “one of the meanest guys I ever knew,” but “at least there was some civility.” Talmadge was a well-known segregationist who opposed civil rights.

Some of his Democratic primary opponents bristled at the comments. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, for instance, referred to Biden as “out of touch” and California Sen. Kamala Harris said the statement was of deep concern.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, another one of Biden’s primary opponents, expressed his disappointment and called on the former Delaware senator to apologize “for the pain his words are dredging up for many Americans.” Biden fired back at Booker and said “Cory should apologize” to him.