BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski has found another revealing, even shocking, video. In this clip from 2007, the future vice president blames a host of disasters that befell the United States an the world at large on Republicans.
BIDEN: To paraphrase a line from the Bible, “You reap what you sow.” And ladies and gentlemen, we are reaping what we have sown in the seeds of destruction and the seeds of malcontention [sic] that we’ve sown, I would argue that since 1994 with the Gingrich revolution. Ladies and gentlemen, just take a look at Iraq, Venezuela, Katrina, what’s gone down in, uh, Virginia Tech, Darfur, Imus. Take a look. This didn’t happen accidentally, all of these things. Since 1994 from the Gingrich revolution to Karl Rove and President Bush we have wallowed, wallowed in the politics of polarization.
Blaming Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove and George Bush for issues as unrelated as a hurricane, a socialist takeover in Venezuela, the Virginia Tech massacre and Don Imus isn’t wallowing in the “politics of polarization?”
It’s hard to know where to start to unpack Biden’s comments, but let’s take a stab at the most obvious flaw. Biden connects all of those discreet events into some kind of storyline, arguing that they “didn’t happen accidentally.” That means they happened intentionally. Is that a conspiracy theory coming from the man who is now a heartbeat away from the presidency?
If it is, it’s a bizarre one. Bill Clinton was president when Gingrich’s 1994 revolution happened. Clinton was re-elected two years later. Democrats benefited from Katrina and Don Imus’ comments. They ended up benefiting from Iraq, a war Joe Biden voted in favor of, with a takeover of the presidency and both houses of Congress. It’s hard to say how anyone in American politics has benefited from the genocide in Darfur or Hugo Chavez’s takeover in Venezuela. The two events don’t appear to be connected, but maybe one of the Illuminati will stop by to explain it all to us in the comments.
Joe Biden betrays thinking that is equal parts incoherence and moral relativism here. He really believes that Don Imus’ arguably racist comment that got him fired is on a par with genocide, which is on a par with a botched (local) response to a natural disaster, which is on a par with a madman’s rampage, which is on a par with a war in the Middle East to remove a dictator, which is on a par with a socialist seizing power in South America. Then by linking all of that to Newt Gingrich, Biden says America “reaps what we have sown,” thereby blaming the American people, ultimately, for events in Venezuela, the Sudan and even for the weather. If we had not voted Gingrich into power, says the word of faith that came to the prophet Joseph Biden, none of these things would have happened.
If that’s not blaming America first, then nothing is.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member