Ex-NFL star Jack Brewer tears apart Joe Biden, says 'mask is off' man who incarcerated black people for decades
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has restricted himself to virtual campaigning for the November 3 presidential election from the confines of his home but it hasn’t seen him courting any less controversy. The former vice president, who has been accused of rape by one of his former Senate aides, is now facing a racist charge. The 77-year-old Biden recently made a mocking statement at a popular black radio host suggesting that the African-American people who are not sure about picking the better president between him and incumbent Donald Trump "ain’t black".
The Democrat faced a massive backlash after his remark and it continued even after he made an apology to black business leaders on Friday, May 22, the same day after he uttered the words to Charlamagne tha God, the host of 'The Breakfast Club' show. He was slammed by supporters of his own party besides black Republican leaders. Former National Football League (NFL) star Jack Brewer also hit out at Biden for his comment saying, "the mask is off." Speaking to Fox and Friends Weekend on Sunday, May 24, the former Arizona Cardinals player said, "America can see the real Joe Biden, hopefully all of my African-American brothers and sisters."
"It's time to look in the mirror and have a real soul check to see the man that has really mass incarcerated black men over the last two-and-a-half-plus decades," Brewer, who called Trump "first black president" of the US in February this year, said. Brewer, 41, was referring to the former VP’s hand in drafting a crime bill in 1994. Biden, who was a senator from Delaware then, played an instrumental role in pushing for the bill that critics held responsible for a dramatic rise in the incarceration of black people. Biden, who served as the senator of Delaware for three-and-a-half decades, wrote the bill before it was passed by the Congress with bi-partisan support and then signed into law by then president Bill Clinton, a Democrat, as the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (1994).
Biden has massive support from African-American voters
Brewer's remarks could add fuel to the fire which has been caused by Biden's "ain’t black" statement. The man has found a major support in the African-American community this primary season that saw some of the black Democratic presidential aspirants like Kamala Harris bowing out of the race prematurely. Biden's turnaround moment came at the South Carolina primary in late February after the state’s influential black leader, James Clyburn, endorsed him. In the subsequent primary battles, Biden, who served as deputy to former president Barack Obama, cruised ahead of the rest because of the solid backing he got from the black voters.
Biden was unpleasantly rattled during his talks with tha God last week when the latter told him that more questions were lined up for him. "You've got more questions? Well, I will tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain’t black," the Democratic presidential aspirant said. The veteran then asked the host to see his work record for the black community. "I extended the voting rights act 25 years. I have a record that is second to none. The NAACP has endorsed me every time I've run. Come on, take a look at my record," he asserted.
NAACP distances itself from Biden
The NAACP or the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People refuted Biden's claim of backing him, saying it is a non-partisan organization that refuses to endorse candidates for political office at any level. "We want to clarify that the NAACP is a non-partisan organization and does not endorse candidates for political office at any level," NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson said. "Persons affiliated with the NAACP at the national, state, and local levels are free to make candidate endorsements in a personal capacity, but they do not reflect support by the NAACP as an organization."
In his apology to the US Black Chamber of Commerce, Biden said: "I should not have been so cavalier. I've never, never, ever taken the African-American community for granted. I shouldn't have been such a wise guy.... No one should have to vote for any party based on their race, their religion, their background," he added. But his apology has had little success in cutting the ice.
Even Biden's adviser Symone Sanders, who tried to defend him saying the former VP made his remarks in a ‘jest’, faced backlash from writer Roxane Gay who said it was not funny. In a tweet, she wrote: "He (Biden) doesn't get to ‘jest’ like that. It wasn’t funny. It played into the long standing notion that the black vote is uncritical and guaranteed and the notion that blackness is mutable and defined by whiteness." Tha God also slammed Biden during a talk with CNN. Rodericka Applewhaite, a former staffer of the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, also reacted to Biden’s words in a tweet calling them "embarrassing" and "hurtful".