New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) blasted former Vice President Joe Biden, a fellow presidential candidate, on Wednesday for praising the “civility” of his relationships with segregationist former colleagues.
“It’s 2019 & @JoeBiden is longing for the good old days of “civility” typified by [Sen.] James Eastland [D-Miss]. Eastland thought my multiracial family should be illegal & that whites were entitled to “the pursuit of dead n*ggers,” de Blasio tweeted Wednesday.
“It’s past time for apologies or evolution from @JoeBiden. He repeatedly demonstrates that he is out of step with the values of the modern Democratic Party,” de Blasio added in a followup tweet.
De Blasio accompanied the tweets with a photo of his wife, Chirlane McCray, who is African American, and their children, Dante and Chiara.
In remarks at a Tuesday fundraiser, Biden spoke of his time working with Eastland and Sen. Herman Talmadge (D-Ga.) and favorably compared the partisan climate to the modern era.{mosads}
“At least there was some civility. We got things done. We didn’t agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished,” Biden said.
Eastland, in addition to his opposition to integration, was a vocal opponent of allowing African American soldiers to serve during World War II and suggested the 1964 murder of three civil rights workers in Mississippi was a hoax.
Talmadge was one of several Southern Democrats to boycott the 1964 Democratic National Convention after then-President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.
Biden has been the frontrunner in most polls of the crowded Democratic field, while de Blasio, one of the most recent entrants, has typically polled near the bottom of the field. The mayor has met the Democratic National Committee’s threshold for the first debates next week, but won’t be on the stage the same night as Biden.
Biden has focused most of his fire on Trump rather than his competitors for the Democratic nomination since announcing his campaign. De Blasio’s comments mark some of the harshest words from Biden’s competitors thus far.