Christian Cooper, bird watcher who had the police called on him, endorses Biden

Christian Cooper, the bird watcher on whom a white woman called the police in New York, announced Friday he is endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential bid. 

Cooper, who did not vote for President Trump in 2016, suggested the woman who called the police on him was following the president’s lead, and said Biden could set a better tone on race relations if he were in the White House.

“It startled me that she would try to manipulate racial bias to get her way. But I shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, she was just taking her cue from the highest office in the land,” Cooper wrote in an op-ed for NBC News. “When the mistreatment of Black and brown people in this country has cried out for justice and healing, [Trump] has given a wink and a nod to white nationalists — and to anyone who decides to try to weaponize race just to get what they want.” 

“We all have a role in that work to address racial bias, but the president of the United States sets the tone,” he added. “That’s why I’m supporting Joe Biden.”

Cooper noted that he does not agree with Biden on all of his policy positions, but is comforted by his decades of experience in Washington and confidence that the former vice president would stack his administration with “people of competence.” However, he said he decided to back Biden over “his capacity for growth.” 

“I’ve seen his understanding of our country evolve over the years to meet new challenges. His own personal story of tragedy and then triumph in his family life wouldn’t be possible for someone who couldn’t take pain and forge something new from it,” he wrote. “It shows a capacity to heal, to learn, to evolve, to overcome. And that’s what our country is so badly crying out for today; that’s what we have to do as a nation.”

The endorsement comes over the backdrop of a national conversation on race and police brutality after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis.

Biden has slammed Trump for his handling of protests over systemic racism, saying the White House is working to divide the country. Trump has garnered widespread criticism for his rhetoric regarding the demonstrators, calling them “thugs” and threatening to unleash “vicious” dogs on protesters.

Cooper, who is black, first garnered national headlines last month when a white woman called the police on him in New York after he asked her to leash her dog and she falsely claimed that he was threatening her. Cooper recorded video of the exchange with the woman, which swiftly went viral.