Joe Biden in Interviews during 2018-2020
On Principles & Values:
People not looking for a revolution: looking for results
It's not about organizing the Democratic Party; it's about giving confidence to the American people that we can get the things done which I believe we can get done.
They're not looking for a revolution; they're looking for results. They're looking for change. They're looking for movement forward. This is not just about wealth; this is about work being rewarded.
Source: Meet the Press on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 1, 2020
On Principles & Values:
AdWatch: World laughs at Trump for dangerous incompetence
[Biden campaign video showing Trump at NATO summit in London]:Narrator 1: "World leaders caught on camera laughing about Pres. Trump"
Narrator 2: "Several world leaders mocking Pres. Trump"
Narrator 3: "They're laughing at him"
Pres. Trump
[speaking at the United Nations in Sept. 2018]: "My administration has accomplished more than almost any other administration in the history of our country"
[Audience laughs]
President Trump: "Didn't expect that reaction, but that's OK."
Narrator
4: "World leaders mocking and ridiculing him for being completely off-balance."
Joe Biden: "The world sees Trump for what he is--insincere, ill-informed, corrupt, dangerously incompetent, and incapable, in my view, of world leadership. And if we give
Donald Trump four more years, we'll have a great deal of difficulty of ever being able to recover America's standing in the world, and our capacity to bring nations together."
Video text: "We need a leader the world respects. Biden for President."
Source: Twitter posting AdWatch on 2020 Democratic primary
Dec 4, 2019
On Principles & Values:
FactCheck:Yes, entered & left Congress as one of the poorest
In challenging President Trump to release his tax returns, Joe Biden said he had released 21 years of his returns and then claimed relative poverty for himself. "I entered as one of the poorest men in Congress, left one of the poorest men in government--
in Congress and as vice president," Biden said. We looked for outside data on [entering Congress poor] and did not find much, but indications are Biden didn't have much wealth. Roll Call magazine has done wealth rankings, but only for members of
Congress and dating back only to 1990. The summary Biden reported outside income in 1973 of $6,050, all from speeches.
On Biden's second claim about leaving as one of the poorest officials in government, Biden's estimated net worth was -$52,493 in
2007. In other words, it appeared that his debts outpaced his assets. Biden again ranked near the bottom: 577 of 581 officials in 2014: his estimated net worth was -$947,987. Since leaving the White House, Biden has reaped millions.
Source: PolitiFact.com FactCheck on 2020 Democratic primary
Oct 30, 2019
On Crime:
1994: Billions for state prisons but fewer billions than GOP
In a campaign speech, former Biden claimed that his record on the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act had been "grossly misrepresented." He distanced himself from some of the key provisions of the law, including its billions in funding
for states to build prisons: "I didn't support more money to build state prisons. I was against it. We should be building rehab centers and not prisons," he said.He was misrepresenting his own record. Biden expressed unequivocal support, in both
1994 and in the years following, for the law's billions in funding to build state prisons. He argued in 1994 that the law should include less money for prison construction than Republicans wanted to spend--but he emphasized that he too wanted to spend
billions.
Biden's campaign did not dispute our conclusion that Biden did support this kind of spending. Biden "was referring to how Republicans wanted to provide more money for prison construction than he felt was right," said a campaign spokesperson.
Source: CNN FactCheck on 2020 Democratic primary
Jul 7, 2019
On Crime:
1992: pro-death penalty; 2019: congrats on ending it
Joe Biden said in a 1992 speech that criminal justice legislation he was pushing was so strict that "we do everything but hang people for jaywalking." Two years later, his signature crime bill made dozens of additional offenses punishable by death.
But in a little-noticed remark earlier this month in New Hampshire, Biden seemed to offer a decidedly different stance on the death penalty.
Fielding a question from a voter aligned with the ACLU about how he'd reduce the federal prison population,
Biden gave a long and winding answer: He defended his crime bill, advocated for reforms to the criminal justice system involving nonviolent and drug offenders, and said he was proud of his work with Barack Obama to cut the federal prison population by
3,800.
Then, unprompted, Biden added: "By the way, congratulations to ya'll ending the death penalty here." Biden's campaign would not comment on his answer, or shed light on whether he's changed his position on the death penalty.
Source: Politico.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Jun 20, 2019
On Civil Rights:
In the 1970s, I worked with opponents to get things done
Joe Biden has refused to apologize for remarks in which he praised the "civility" of an arch-segregationist Mississippi senator he used to collaborate with. The controversy began at a fundraiser: Biden was lamenting the decline of comity in America's
political culture when his remarks took a dark detour. The former vice president voiced nostalgia for his ability to partner with Southern segregationist Democrats back when he joined the Senate in the 1970s. "At least there was some civility,"
Biden said. "We didn't agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished."For Biden, the remarks seemed intended to build on the narrative he's framed for himself as an old-school politician, versed in bipartisanship, who knows
how to make Washington work. Decrying the current state of affairs in the Beltway, Biden added: "Today you look at the other side and you're the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don't talk to each other anymore."
Source: Rolling Stone magazine on 2020 Democratic primary
Jun 19, 2019
On Civil Rights:
You don't have to agree with opponents to work with them
In his remarks [about comity in the 1970s Senate] Biden voiced fondness for one colleague in particular, James Eastland, a Mississippi senator with a despicable legacy of racial hatred and incitement who was also a mentor to Biden in his early days in
Washington.Biden's remarks drew swift rebukes from 2020 challengers, including Sen. Cory Booker and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio--both of whom insisted Biden should apologize. Senator Kamala Harris also expressed concern over Biden's "misinformed" praise
of openly racist politicians.
Senator Eastland was an avatar of the darkest racism of the Civil Rights-era South. He championed white supremacy in language that now shocks the conscience.
Biden said, "I could not have disagreed with Jim Eastland mor
Source: Rolling Stone magazine on 2020 Democratic primary
Jun 19, 2019
On Civil Rights:
Will be mindful of changing social norms & personal space
Biden's campaign launch comes after facing allegations rom women that he had made them feel uncomfortable with what was described as inappropriate touching. "Social norms are changing. I understand that, and I've heard what these women are saying,"
Biden explained in a video. "Politics to me has always been about making connections, but I will be more mindful about respecting personal space in the future. That's my responsibility and I will meet it."
Source: Fox News on 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 25, 2019
On Principles & Values:
We are in a battle for the soul of this nation
Biden pointed to the violent clashes in Charlottesville in 2017 at a white nationalist rally [and] Trump's response that "there were some very fine people on both sides.""With those words, the president of the United assigned a moral equivalence
between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it," Biden charged. "And in that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had seen in my lifetime. We are in the battle for the soul of this nation."
Source: Fox News on 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 25, 2019
On Civil Rights:
1970s: Desegregating society ok, but not via school busing
Biden's statements [opposing school desegregation] 44 years ago represent one of the earliest chapters in his well-documented record on racial issues, during which he generally has worked alongside African American leaders and been embraced by them.
Biden's spokesman said the former V.P. still believes he was right to oppose busing, noting, "He never thought busing was the best way to integrate schools in Delaware--a position which most people now agree with. As he said during those many years of
debate, busing would not achieve equal opportunity. And it didn't."
The spokesman said Biden has a distinguished history of working for civil rights and against segregation. As a young man, Biden fought to desegregate a movie theater in Delaware, and
worked as the only white employee at a largely black swimming pool. "Joe Biden is today--and has been for more than 40 years in public life--one of the strongest and most powerful voices for civil rights in America," the spokesman concluded.
Source: Washington Post, "Desegregation," on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 7, 2019
On Crime:
1993: Don't care why "predators" act; put them in jail
Joe Biden in a 1993 speech warned of "predators on our streets" who were "beyond the pale" and said they must be cordoned off from the rest of society because the justice system did not know how to rehabilitate them. Biden, chair of the
Senate Judiciary Committee, made the comments on the Senate floor a day before a vote was scheduled on the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.
Biden said he did not care what led someone to commit crimes. "I don't care why someone is a malefactor in society. I don't care why someone is antisocial. I don't care why they've become a sociopath," Biden said. "We have an obligation to cordon them
off from the rest of society, try to help them, try to change the behavior. That's what we do in this bill. We have drug treatment and we have other treatments to try to deal with it, but they are in jail."
Source: CNN KFile, "Predators," on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 7, 2019
On Crime:
1994 Crime Bill got help for first time offenders, not jail
A spokesman for Biden said high violent crime rates at the time was key context to understanding the bill, adding that the 1994 crime bill included funding "to keep individuals who committed first-time offenses and non-violent crimes out of prison and
instead in treatment and supervision," and that Biden advocated for prevention funding. Two provisions of the bill that led to Biden's strong support of its passage: bans on high-capacity magazines and assault weapons and the Violence Against Women Act.
Source: CNN KFile, "Predators," on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 7, 2019
On Crime:
1990s: Supported tough-on-crime; 2019:considers those racist
At an event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January, Biden repeated earlier statements of regret for supporting tough-on-crime measures in the 1990s, which included provisions now widely considered racially discriminatory and
at least partly responsible for current incarceration rates, in which African Americans are significantly over-represented.
"The bottom line is we have a lot to root out, but most of all the systematic racism that most of us whites don't like to acknowledge even exists," Biden said during a breakfast held by the Rev.
Al Sharpton and the National Action Network. "We don't even consciously acknowledge it. But it's been built into every aspect of our system."
Source: Washington Post, "Desegregation," on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 7, 2019
On Drugs:
Harsh sentences for crack were a mistake; worked to rectify
Biden said, "I haven't always been right. I know we haven't always gotten things right, but I've always tried." He highlighted his later work with Pres. Obama to address the sentencing disparity for crack versus powder cocaine, saying, "It was a big
mistake when it was made," he said at the MLK breakfast. "We thought, we were told by the experts, that crack you never go back, it was somehow fundamentally different. It's not different. But it's trapped an entire generation."
Source: CNN KFile, "Predators," on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 7, 2019
On Education:
1970s: outspoken Senate critic of school desegregation
When Joe Biden was a freshman senator in the mid-1970s, his home state of Delaware, like other hotspots across the country, was engulfed in a bitter battle over school busing, debating whether children should be sent to schools in different
neighborhoods to promote racial diversity.Biden took a lead role in the fight, speaking out repeatedly and forcefully against sending white children to majority-black schools and black children to majority-white schools. He played down the
persistence of overt racism and suggested that the government should have a limited role in integration.
"I do not buy the concept, popular in the '60s, which said, 'We have suppressed the black man for 300 years and the white man is now far ahead
in the race for everything our society offers. In order to even the score, we must now give the black man a head start, or even hold the white man back, to even the race,' " Biden told a Delaware-based weekly newspaper in 1975. "I don't buy that."
Source: Washington Post, "Desegregation," on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 7, 2019
On Drugs:
Long record of opposing marijuana legalization
Biden remains one of very few prominent Democrats who've still failed to endorse cannabis legalization at the federal level. The last time he substantively addressed legalization appears to be 2010, in an ABC News interview: "There's
a difference between sending someone to jail for a few ounces and legalizing it," he said. "The punishment should fit the crime. But I think legalization is a mistake. I still believe [marijuana] is a gateway drug."
Source: David Bienenstock in Leafly.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Feb 26, 2019
On Drugs:
Forbid government study of legalization
In 1996, Biden voted for a bill that required: "The Director shall ensure that no Federal funds appropriated to the Office of National Drug Control Policy shall be expended for any study or contract relating to the legalization
(for a medical use or any other use) of a substance listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812) and take such actions as necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize the use of [such] a substance (in any form)."
Source: David Bienenstock in Leafly.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Feb 26, 2019
On Principles & Values:
Restore America's soul: bigotry is not an American value
[Speaking at U.Penn.], "Carrying swastikas being accompanied by white supremacists and confronted by wholesome Americans who thought this is not who we are, we are not racist, we are not anti-semites, we are not homophobic," he said. "And then the
highest leaders, saying there is a moral equivalence, good people in both groups. No president since the civil war has ever uttered anything remotely approaching words like that. It's time to restore America's soul and remind ourselves who we are."
Source: The Philadelphia Tribune on 2020 Democratic primary hopefuls
Feb 20, 2019
On Foreign Policy:
Opposition to European alliances like NATO is dumb
Biden did not mince words when discussing the Trump administration's foreign policy, specifically criticizing the administration's skepticism towards the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization. "Both of those, for the first time in
70 years, are under attack," Biden said, labeling the Trump administration's opposition to the two organizations as "the dumbest thing in the world."
Source: The Daily Pennsylvanian on 2020 Democratic primary hopefuls
Feb 19, 2019
On Jobs:
We need "moral capitalism" and corporate responsibility
Biden pointed out that the gap between the wealth of the top one percent and the rest of America is bigger than any time since before 1920. "There's no excuse for this," Biden said. "What happened to a moral responsibility, a moral capitalism?"
Biden talked about workers signing contracts with companies that required workers to not discuss their pay. "What possible reason for that can be other than suppressing wages? Give me an explanation," Biden said.
Source: The Daily Pennsylvanian on 2020 Democratic primary hopefuls
Feb 19, 2019
On Homeland Security:
Refugee policy is an embarrassment
[In Germany, Biden said] "The America I see values basic human decency, not snatching children from their parents or turning our back on refugees at our border. Americans know that's not right." The former vice president told the
Munich Security Conference, "The American people understand plainly that this makes us an embarrassment. The American people know, overwhelmingly, that it is not right. That it is not who we are."
Source: Washington Examiner on 2020 Democratic primary hopefuls
Feb 16, 2019
On War & Peace:
US should stand up to aggression of dictators
[At the Munich Security Conference], "The America I see does not wish to turn our back on the world or our closest allies," Biden said, citing a commitment to both NATO and the European Union that has often been in doubt under
Trump. "The America I see cherishes a free press, democracy, the rule of law. It stands up to the aggression of dictators and against strongmen."
Source: WashingtonPost.com on 2020 Democratic primary hopefuls
Feb 16, 2019
On Drugs:
1989: Bush didn't go far enough in War on Drugs
In September 1989, George H. W. Bush delivered a speech outlining his National Drug Control Strategy, in which he called for harsher punishments for drug dealers, nearly $1.5 billion toward drug-related law enforcement, and "more prisons, more jails,
more courts, more prosecutors" at every level throughout the country. "Quite frankly, the President's plan is not tough enough, bold enough, or imaginative enough to meet the crisis at hand,"
Biden said in a televised response to Bush's speech. "In a nutshell, the President's plan does not include enough police officers to catch the violent thugs, enough prosecutors to convict them,
enough judges to sentence them, or enough prison cells to put them away for a long time."
Source: Jacobin Magazine on 2020 Democratic primary
Aug 9, 2018
On Drugs:
Proud of backing tough drug laws & penalties
Biden would later brag in the Senate that Congress passed a law sending anyone caught with a rock of cocaine the size of a quarter to jail for a minimum of five years. Biden went on to take credit for a legislative change allowing the
government to effectively rob anyone caught dealing drugs, through the policy of civil asset forfeiture, and demanded to know why the Bush administration hadn't sentenced more drug dealers to life in prison or death.
Source: Jacobin Magazine on 2020 Democratic primary
Aug 9, 2018
On Foreign Policy:
$750M to Central America to address root cause of migration
[Pres. Obama and I] knew the cost of investing in a secure and prosperous Central America was modest compared with the cost of allowing violence and poverty to fester. Following intensive negotiations between the Obama administration and the Northern
Triangle presidents, Congress provided $750 million in 2016 to fund a whole-of-government effort to effect deep and lasting change in Central America. Because Central American governments had long been perceived--with good reason--as corrupt, inept and
incapable of delivering basic services to their citizens, I supported Congress in tying the aid package to concrete commitments by regional governments to clean up their police, increase tax collection, fight corruption and create the opportunities
necessary to convince would-be migrants to remain in their countries.We also implemented new programs to help those in immediate danger by allowing them to apply for asylum. By the end of the Obama administration, we began to see results.
Source: Joe Biden OpEd in Washington Post (2020 Democratic primary)
Jun 25, 2018
On Foreign Policy:
Revive Alliance for Prosperity with Central America
There is still time to build on the policy that emerged from the last major migration crisis in 2014--a policy modeled in part on the successful, bipartisan approach to Plan Colombia. When the vice president travels this week to Guatemala, the president
should send him with a mandate to revive the intense diplomatic and aid efforts that gave rise to the Alliance for Prosperity, and opened a window of hope for the most besieged countries in our hemisphere.We can both strengthen U.S. border security
and treat migrants arriving from Central America with dignity and decency instead of cruelty and callousness. But their overwhelming desire to flee their countries and risk everything to enter the United States shows that their governments are
still failing them. This migration will only continue unless we keep up the pressure and provide the support to make the Northern Triangle of Central America a prosperous and secure place to call home.
Source: Joe Biden OpEd in Washington Post (2020 Democratic primary)
Jun 25, 2018
On Immigration:
Focus on refugee asylum seekers at home in Northern Triangle
When President Trump signed an executive order ending the separation of children from their families at the border, it did not end the crisis in Central America. Nor should it relieve our moral anguish at seeing the poorest and most vulnerable treated
in ways that are fundamentally at odds with our nation's values.The moment also calls for a renewed focus on the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America--the countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, which together represent the
overwhelming source of migrants crossing our southern border. Unless we address the root causes driving migration from this region, any solutions focused solely on border protection and enforcement will be insufficient.
In 2014, [Pres. Obama and
I saw that] migration from Central America could not be resolved merely by stronger enforcement at the US border, let alone by building a wall. Instead, we needed to tackle the drivers of migration: crime, violence, corruption and lack of opportunity.
Source: Joe Biden OpEd in Washington Post (2020 Democratic primary)
Jun 25, 2018
Page last updated: Dec 01, 2021