Mary Margaret Olohan on August 28, 2019
Former Vice President Joe Biden praised a segregationist friend less than 24 hours after he promised to stop mentioning his past work with segregationists.
The 2020 presidential candidate told reporters Tuesday that he should not have discussed his memories of working with segregationists in the Senate earlier this summer, according to Politico.
“I’m not using those examples anymore,” he said, the publication reports.
But Biden mentioned segregationist friend Fritz Hollings one day later at a townhall in Spartanburg, South Carolina on Wednesday. Hollings, a South Carolina Democrat who served as a senator for more than 38 years, passed away at age 97 in April.
“Folks, you know, I spent an awful lot of time in South Carolina because of my good friend,” Biden said, “and he was my great, great friend and helped me a great deal through some very difficult times, Fritz Hollings and PT Hollings, and I miss him.”
The former vice president often faces backlash for his political background. He told reporters Tuesday that “it’s hard” when his actions are brought up without the context of the time period.
“It’s hard,” Biden said, according to Politico. “I’m not being critical. I’m just saying I’ve got to be aware that when things are said by me or about something I did or said in 1970 or 1980, people don’t understand the context, and it really is a frightening thing.”