Joe Biden says 10 to 15 per cent of Americans ‘are not good people’ during online discussion

Is this Joe’s ‘Deplorables’ moment? Biden says 10 to 15 percent of Americans ‘are not good people’ during discussion on race with Don Cheadle – sparking memories of Hillary Clinton’s costly 2016 election gaffe

  • Biden told supporters online ‘there are probably anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of the people out there that are just not very good people’
  • He told interviewer actor Don Cheadle President Trump ‘divides people all the time’ 
  •  The remark has the potential to animate Trump supporters, after Trump and his team erupted after Hillary Clinton’s 2016 ‘basket of deplorables’ remark
  • Said in discussion on George Floyd that the ‘vast majority’ of people were decent 
  • Biden’s math would have up to 50 million Americans be considered ‘not very good’
  •  Biden has opened up leads nationwide over Trump and is even running close to him in some GOP-leaning battleground states

Vice President Joe Biden said in a discussion of the George Floyd killing that a large substantial share of Americans are not ‘very good people’ – as he tried to condemn President Trump but potentially opened himself up to attack. 

‘There are probably anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of the people out there that are just not very good people,’ Biden said in an online discussion with actor Don Cheadle Thursday. 

Amid deep divides over police conduct toward African Americans and Trump’s decision to proclaim ‘law and order’ while brandishing the U.S. military in a crackdown, Biden condemned the president’s words and tone. 

Former Vice President Joe Biden told supporters online in a discussion with actor Don Cheadle that ‘there are probably anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of the people out there that are just not very good people’

‘The words a president says matter. So when a president stands up and divides people all the time, you’re going to get the worst of us to come out. The worst insult to com out.’ Biden said.

But he also extended his critique far beyond a small slice of the country. ‘Do we really think this is as good as we can be as a nation? I don’t think the vast majority of people think that,’ he continued.

Biden made his comment in a discussion on the reaction to the death of George Floyd. Here Terrence Floyd (Yankees Cap), brother of George Floyd walks with activists across the Brooklyn Bridge during a rally in response to the killing of his brother by Minneapolis police on June 04, 2020

Biden made his comment in a discussion on the reaction to the death of George Floyd. Here Terrence Floyd (Yankees Cap), brother of George Floyd walks with activists across the Brooklyn Bridge during a rally in response to the killing of his brother by Minneapolis police on June 04, 2020

Derek Chauvin has been charged with second degree murder after being seen on video kneeling on Floyd's neck for almost eight minutes.

Derek Chauvin has been charged with second degree murder after being seen on video kneeling on Floyd’s neck for almost eight minutes.

In this image from video provided by WBFO, a Buffalo police officer appears to shove a man who walked up to police Thursday, June 4, 2020, in Buffalo, N.Y. amid ongoing protests and unrest over the killing of Floyd

In this image from video provided by WBFO, a Buffalo police officer appears to shove a man who walked up to police Thursday, June 4, 2020, in Buffalo, N.Y. amid ongoing protests and unrest over the killing of Floyd

In this image from video posted on Twitter Tuesday, May 5, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery stumbles and falls to the ground after being shot as Travis McMichael stands by holding a shotgun in a neighborhood outside Brunswick, Ga., on Feb. 23, 2020

In this image from video posted on Twitter Tuesday, May 5, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery stumbles and falls to the ground after being shot as Travis McMichael stands by holding a shotgun in a neighborhood outside Brunswick, Ga., on Feb. 23, 2020

‘There are probably anywhere from 10 to 15 per cent of the people out there that are just not very good people. But that’s not who we are. The vast majority of the people are decent, and we have to appeal to that and we have to unite people — bring them together,’ Trump said. 

His remarks recalled a gaffe by Hillary Clinton during the 2016 elections, where she said half of Trump’s supporters could be put in a ‘basket of deplorables.’ It was a comment that the Trump campaign was able to weaponize as the candidates were battling it out in critical swing states, and that Clinton had to walk back.

She had said half of then-candidate Trump’s supporters were ‘racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic.’ She later condemned her ‘generalistic’ statement as well as her math.

“Last night I was ‘grossly generalistic,’ and that’s never a good idea. I regret saying ‘half’ — that was wrong,” she said in September. 

Clinton had made the remark days earlier at a campaign gala in New York City. Trump immediately made hay out of it, tweeting: ‘Wow, Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters, millions of amazing, hard working people. I think it will cost her at the Polls!’

Trump supporters soon embraced the term, and some started up showing up campaign rallies with ‘deplorables’ signs.  

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk