Joe Biden did what he always does, disregard the advice of a particular sect. In this case, Jim Clyburn was the recipient of Biden’s “love.” This isn’t new even as many like to disregard his proclivity to undermine or trivialize the intelligence of some.
Joe Biden, true to form
“There’s no doubt Jim Clyburn’s endorsement was a big deal to your candidacy,” Chuck Todd said. “The exit poll indicated it was a big deal. And he’s got a lot of things to say about your campaign. And I’m sure you’ve heard about this, but this is what he said yesterday.’I did not feel free to speak out about it or to even deal with it inside because I had not committed to his candidacy. I have now. I’m all in. And I’m not going to sit idly by and watch people mishandle this campaign.’ Do you accept his critique that you’ve had people running your campaign that have mishandled this campaign?”
“No, I don’t,” Joe Biden first said emphatically before catching himself.
Muscle memory, overriding one’s most innate instincts sometimes are very hard. Like after Bloomberg’s Freudian slip where he stated he bought Democratic congressional winners, Biden caught himself.
“Well, I accept the critique that we have to do a lot better,” Biden stated after his mind caught up with his speech. “I accept the critique that we — that this is a matter of addition, not subtraction.”
Biden has a tendency to take liberties in the manner in which he addresses certain people or the way he describes certain people. One cannot forget how he described Obama in another one of his previous failed runs for the presidency in a condescending manner as “articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” Many don’t get the slights, but they are piercing because we know their genesis.
On another note, this is Biden’s third run for the presidency. This is the very first primary he has ever won, period. That the media from his entry has been pushing his candidacy shows at best the level of privilege for some and at worst a democracy so corrupt that doing it in plain sight is now acceptable.