New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called Biden out for his remarks on Wednesday morning.

“You don’t joke about calling black men ‘boys,'” Booker said in a statement according to CNN. “Men like James O. Eastland used words like that, and the racist policies that accompanied them, to perpetuate white supremacy and strip black Americans of our very humanity.”

“Vice President Biden’s relationships with proud segregationists are not the model for how we make America a safer and more inclusive place for black people, and for everyone,” Booker’s statement continued. “I have to tell Vice President Biden, as someone I respect, that he is wrong for using his relationships with Eastland and Talmadge as examples of how to bring our country together.”

De Blasio echoed similar criticism, calling on Biden to apologize and evolve on Twitter Wednesday. De Blasio also said that Biden is “out of step with the values of the modern Democratic Party.”

It’s 2019 & @JoeBiden is longing for the good old days of “civility” typified by James Eastland. Eastland thought my multiracial family should be illegal & that whites were entitled to “the pursuit of dead n*ggers.” (1/2) pic.twitter.com/yoOOkpaTX2

— Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio) June 19, 2019

“Evoking an avowed segregationist is not the best way to make the point that we need to work together and is insensitive; we need to learn from history but we also need to be aggressive in dismantling structural racism that exists today,” former Maryland Rep. John Delaney said according to CNN.

Connie Schultz, a journalist and wife of Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, tweeted that “if you want to boast about your relationship with a racist, you are not who we need to succeed the racist in the White House.”

There is no punchline here, no emoji or funny meme to soften the harm of your words. That segregationist never called you “boy” because you are white. If you want to boast about your relationship with a racist, you are not who we need to succeed the racist in the White House. https://t.co/gULBDb9kMp

— Connie Schultz (@ConnieSchultz) June 19, 2019

Biden’s advisers have warned him not to use someone like Eastland as a person he could work with even with disagreements, two people close to the matter told CNN Wednesday. Biden’s intent in telling the story, which he has shared many times, was to show that he could work together with people that he disagreed with, a senior advisor said according to CNN.

Biden has tried to get support from black voters as the former VP to America’s first black president Barack Obama. However, his history may prevent him from doing so, CNN reported. Biden has praised segregation supporters in the Senate in the past and advocated for the 1994 crime bill, which was controversial because it supported mass incarceration.

In addition, Biden often tried to get the support of segregationist senators from the South in the 1970s and 1980s. He also supported former South Carolina Rep. Sen. Strom Thurmond, one of the biggest supporters of segregation ever, saying that he had “moved to the good side” as time went on, CNN reported.

Biden also was not for desegregating schools, shown in letters where he tried to recruit Eastland for backing. Eastland made multiple statements about blacks being an “inferior race.”

Biden has not apologized for his comments despite multiple Democrats calling for him to do so.