10 Years Ago Today: Joe Biden Praises Former KKK Leader Robert Byrd As A ‘Mentor’

Ten years ago today, Joe Biden praised former Ku Klux Klan “Exalted Cyclops” Robert Byrd, calling him a “friend,” “mentor,” and “guide.” Byrd once recruited and led a 150-member chapter of the KKK.

It wasn’t the first or last time Biden had great things to say about a person who’d had racist views. Biden previously called another Senate segregationist, Strom Thurmond, as “one of my closest friends” and thanked him on the Senate floor for helping him pass laws to incarcerate Black Americans for crack cocaine offenses.

Just last year, Biden bragged about his relationships with other Senate segregationists. After Senator Cory Booker questioned Biden’s judgement, Biden lectured Booker and demanded an apology (on Juneteenth).

Presidint Trump is right: no one should take any lectures on racial justice from Joe Biden. Biden spent his entire career praising segregationists and writing mass incarceration laws that decimated Black communities. Even Biden campaign senior adviser Symone Sanders admitted this month she "does not enjoy" being asked about Biden's terrible track record of locking up minorities.

President Trump is undoing the damage Biden caused and delivering results on criminal justice reform, safe policing, and more economic opportunity for Black Americans. Biden is struggling to explain four decades of betrayal, calamity and failure.

FLASHBACK: 10 years ago today Joe Biden delivered a eulogy for Senate segregationist and former KKK "Exalted Cyclops" leader Robert Byrd.

He called him a "mentor," a "guide," and a "friend."

Byrd once led a KKK chapter with 150 members. pic.twitter.com/gcOlww8i0q

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