Former Vice President Joe Biden made a slip-up saying that he would run for the 2020 presidential election. Whether he does or doesn’t will depend on what he says later, but during his tongue-twisting remarks, he mentioned that he had a more progressive record than anyone else who is running.
“I have the most progressive record of anybody running…of anybody who would run,” Biden said in Delaware.
On Sunday CNN host Jake Tapper spoke on-the-air with another 2020 candidate, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), about Biden’s claim.
"So putting the slip-up aside about ‘would run' versus ‘running'—and he's obviously going to run—is that true? Does Vice President Biden have the most progressive record of anyone running?" Tapper asked.
Klobuchar suggested that the progressive superstar doesn’t have as progressive of a record as he declared.
"He has been running things for a long time as a senator and then as vice president. I'm sure he'll be able to point to some major accomplishments that are progressive," Klobuchar said. "And then he'll have to explain things that weren't as progressive."
Klobuchar added that every Democratic candidate running for 2020 is going to say the same thing about themselves, that they’re the epitome of progressive values.
“I think every candidate is going to do that,” she said. “I think every candidate is going to have to look back at their positions in the past and look forward to what they’re going to want to do as president.”
One of the decisions Biden made that’s deemed controversial is his contribution to the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which Vox reported, “imposed tougher sentences (including some mandatory minimums) and increased funding for prisons, fostering the explosive growth of the US prison population from the 1990s through the 2000s.” Progressives argue that the bill did a lot of harm to the African-American population, “Since black Americans are disproportionately likely to be incarcerated.”
Biden said in January that he regrets working on the bill.
"I haven't always been right. I know we haven't always gotten things right, but I've always tried," he said.
Biden also said he wished he could have done more for Anita Hill, who claimed during the 1991 confirmation hearing of Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas that the then-nominee sexually harassed her. Politico wrote that, “Biden was criticized for failing to blunt attacks on Hill and for not calling witnesses who could have supported her.”
In 2018, Biden told NBC’s Today that he was sorry for not preventing the “attacks” that came on Hill.
"I’m sorry I couldn’t have stopped the kind of attacks that came to you," he said. "But I never attacked her, I supported her. I believed her from the beginning."
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