Though the writing was on the wall well before Tuesday, the incendiary comments President Joe Biden made during the speech he gave in Georgia where he proclaimed that if you don’t agree with him on the filibuster then you were no better than prominent Democrat racists of the past are being credited with hardening the positions of Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema rather than persuading them over to his side .
“I ask every elected official in America: How do you want to be remembered?” Biden asked rhetorically at the time. “Do you want to be on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace? Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis? This is the moment to decide. To defend our elections. To defend our democracy.”
Though Biden has been roundly criticized not just by leaders on the right but by some in his own party over his racially-charged, counter-productive remarks, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had nothing but high praise for Biden’s speech when asked about it today during her daily press briefing.
Specifically, Pelosi was asked by a reporter if she thought Biden’s comparison of his political opposition to Democrat racists of days gone by went too far. Though she appeared a bit out of sorts over the question at first, Pelosi quickly recovered, not only declaring the speech “was wonderful” but also insultingly stating that Biden’s references to Bull Connor were no big deal because, in her (rambling) words, “nobody knows who Bull Connor is.”
“The only criticism I would make, too, I wouldn’t say they’re criticism but observations, nobody knows who Bull Connor is,” she claimed. “You know, if we’re making the case to say wanna be with Martin Luther King or Bull Connor, who’s that? Wanna be with Martin Luther King or the, Martin Luther King and John Lewis or the people who unleashed the fierce dogs on them? That’s who Bull Connor is. Strom Thurmond, none of us have a lot of happy memories about Strom Thurmond,” she laughed before gushing again about how “fabulous” Biden’s speech allegedly was.
Watch (starts at about the :48 mark):
For starters, Biden’s references to Thurmond were not comparisons made to Biden’s modern-day political opponents. His comments were praise of Thurmond, who once helped filibuster the Civil Rights Act of 1957 but who in later years supported extending the Voting Rights Act. So from that perspective, Pelosi’s disjointed comments about how “none of us have a lot of happy memories” about Thurmond made no sense considering Biden, who in the past praised the segregationists he worked with, didn’t appear to view Thurmond from an “unhappy” perspective.
Secondly, how insulting was it that Pelosi believes that because, in her view, “nobody knows who Bull Connor is” that it was an okay comparison to make? If someone compared her to the late conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly, who Democrats absolutely hated, would she be okay with it because “nobody” supposedly knows who Schlafly was? I don’t think so.
But the really telling thing about what Pelosi said was that she just assumes that most people listening to the speech were too stupid to know U.S political history which, come to think of it, is exactly how Democrats like to view voters: Too stupid to know the truth and gullible enough to fall for their constant rotation of spin, demagoguery, and lies.
While some may not know who Bull Connor was, there were many in the crowd who did know, according to some reports I read where reporters said they heard gasps from the crowd when Connor’s name was mentioned.
The bottom line though is that whether or not people know who Connor is, it was a disgusting reference to make and a despicable cheap shot from the man who promised to be the “uniter in chief.” We shouldn’t be mad at either Biden or Pelosi, though, because they ripped the masks off and told voters who they really are this week. And as I’ve said before, the American people should respond accordingly at the ballot box come the fall midterms.