Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden doubled down on his praise of “diversity” within the Latino community “unlike” the Black community.
Speaking virtually on Thursday to the National Association of Latino Elected Officials conference, the former VP vowed that his administration will reflect “the full diversity of this nation” as well as “the full diversity of the Latino communities.”
“Now what I mean full diversity, unlike the African American community and many other communities, you’re from everywhere,” Biden explained. “You’re from Europe, from the tip of South America, all the way to our border in Mexico, and the Caribbean. And different backgrounds, different ethnicities, but all Latinos. We’re gonna get a chance to do that if we win in November.”
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Biden spent much of his remarks attempting to persuade Latino voters to come out and support him in the election and repeatedly slammed President Trump over his attacks on immigrants.
The Democratic candidate faced criticism from similar remarks he made in an interview that was released earlier Thursday as part of the convention of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
During the convention interview, NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro pressed the presumptive Democratic nominee if he would “re-engage” with Cuba as president, something she suggested would have an impact on Cuban-American voters in Florida.
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“Yes, yes,” Biden responded. “And by the way, what you all know, but most people don’t know, unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about different things.”
He elaborated, “You go to Florida, you find a very different attitude about immigration in certain places than you do when you’re in Arizona, so it’s a very diverse community.”
Moments later in the livestream, Biden had a tense exchange with CBS News correspondent Errol Barnett on whether the former VP has taken a cognitive test.
“No, I haven’t taken a test. Why the hell would I take a test? Come on, man. That’s like saying you, before you got on this program, you take a test where you’re taking cocaine or not. What do you think? Huh? Are you a junkie?” Biden told Barnett, who is Black.
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The former VP later knocked President Trump, who previously boasted how he passed the cognitive test he took.
“If he can’t figure out the difference between an elephant and a lion, I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about,” Biden quipped about the president.
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President Trump slammed Biden over his remarks, claiming his Democratic rival “totally disparaged and insulted the Black community.”