Former Vice President Joe Biden is running on a promise to bring the country together, but he is personally culpable in some of its worst divisions.
1. Biden voted to restore U.S. citizenship to Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee.Biden voted to honor Confederate leaders who are now vilified by his party, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the New York Times as racists and traitors who must be expunged from history. He joined a unanimous Senate in voting for citizenship for Lee in 1975, and again in voting for citizenship for Davis in 1977 — the latter being sided into law by Democrat President Jimmy Carter.
2. Biden sided with segregationists. Early in his Senate career, Biden formed alliances with Southern politicians who had been segregationists. He also opposed of “busing,” the policy of forcibly desegregating schools. Though the policy was broadly unpopular, Biden’s opposition went further than many. In an interview in 1975 unearthed by the Washington Examiner, Biden said that busing would lead to “a totally homogeneous society,” hurting black and white people alike.
3. Biden made Supreme Court confirmations fights to the death. Prior to Biden becoming chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Supreme Court confirmations were based almost entirely on qualifications; conservative Antonin Scalia was confirmed unanimously in 1986. But the next year, Biden presided over the confirmation hearings for Robert Bork, who was smeared for his conservative views, and rejected. Confirmations have been death matches ever since.
