Joe Biden has come under fire his double standard after he lambasted Donald Trump as ‘despicable’ for comparing the impeachment inquiry to ‘a lynching’, when he made the same comparison himself in a resurfaced 1998 interview in defense of Bill Clinton.
On Tuesday Trump took to Twitter to call slam the inquiry into his presidency as ‘a lynching’.
‘So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights. All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching. But we will WIN!’ he tweeted.
Biden pounced on the chance to eviscerate Trump tweeting, ‘Impeachment is not “lynching”, it is part of our Constitution’, going so far as to call the comparison ‘abhorrent’ and ‘despicable’.
Joe Biden lambasted Trump on Tuesday calling him ‘abhorrent’ and ‘despicable’ after the president tweeted that his impeachment inquiry was a political ‘lynching’
On Tuesday Trump tweeted: ‘All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching’. Biden pounced on the chance to eviscerate Trump tweeting, ‘Impeachment is not “lynching”, it is part of our Constitution’, going so far as to call the comparison ‘abhorrent’ and ‘despicable’.
‘Our country has a dark, shameful history with lynching, and to even think about making this comparison is abhorrent. It’s despicable,’ he added.
But many were quick to pull receipts from Biden’s past and point out that he made the same lynching comparison back in October 1998 in an interview on CNN speaking about impeaching Bill Clinton.
In an interview with Wolf Blitzer Biden said the impending impeachment proceedings against then President Bill Clinton could be viewed as ‘partisan lynching’.
But many were quick to pull receipts from Biden’s past and point out that he made the same lynching comparison back in October 1998 in an interview on CNN speaking about impeaching Bill Clinton.
‘Even if the President should be impeached, history is going to question whether or not this was just a partisan lynching or whether or not it was something that in fact met the standard, the very high bar, that was set by the founders as to what constituted an impeachable offense,’ Biden said in the 1998 interview
Biden, then a senator, voted to acquit Clinton during the trial phase in the Senate in February 1999 and Clinton was eventually acquitted
‘Even if the President should be impeached, history is going to question whether or not this was just a partisan lynching or whether or not it was something that in fact met the standard, the very high bar, that was set by the founders as to what constituted an impeachable offense,’ Biden said.
In 1998 Clinton was formally impeached by the House of Representatives for lying under oath and obstruction of justice.
Biden, then a senator, voted to acquit Clinton during the trial phase in the Senate in February 1999 and Clinton was eventually acquitted.
Social media users were quick to call Biden out for his gaffe.
Lynching refers to the horrific extrajudicial killings of African Americans in the late 19th and early 20th century carried out by white supremacists in the U.S.
Trump was heavily criticized for using that choice word – which carries a serious weight in U.S. racial politics.
Twitter users were quick to call Biden out for his gaffe, his latest in a string of stumbles in his race for the Democratic nomination
Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said: ‘The President never should have made that comparison.’
California Sen. Kamala Harris, who is running for president and is the second African American woman ever elected to the Senate, called Trump’s statement ‘disgraceful’.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who is also African American, also condemned the tweet saying: ‘Lynching is an act of terror used to uphold white supremacy. Try again.’
‘That’s not the language I would use,’ Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California said on Trump’s choice words. ‘I don’t agree with that language, pretty simple.’
‘Given the history in our country, I would not compare it to a lynching. That was an unfortunate choice of words. It is an unfair process,’ Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said to reporters on Trump’s tweet.