When former Vice President Joe Biden launched his presidential campaign last month, he published a video slamming President Donald Trump for his response to the white nationalist riots in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. Biden lied about Trump’s response, but in doing so he used a banner from a student group at the University of Virginia (UVa). That student group wasn’t happy…
Hours after Biden released his video, UVa Students United responded with an f-bomb.
“F**K [Joe Biden]!!!!” the student group tweeted. “He is no better than the white supremacist who terrorized Charlottesville.”
FUCK @JoeBiden!!!!
He is no better than the white supremacist who terrorized Charlottesville.
— #HandsOffVenezuela (@uvastudentpower) April 25, 2019
“He has blood on his hands as well,” the group went on. “We stand with the millions of people affected by his racist and imperialist policies. We are disgusted by his misuse of a traumatic weekend and our anti-fascist demonstrations as the springboard for his campaign.”
We stand with the millions of people affected by his racist and imperialist policies
We are disgusted by his misuse of a traumatic weekend and our anti-fascist demonstrations as the springboard for his campaign
— #HandsOffVenezuela (@uvastudentpower) April 25, 2019
Biden’s video shows their “VA Students Against White Supremacy” banner at the 1:04 minute mark.
We stand with the millions of people affected by his racist and imperialist policies
We are disgusted by his misuse of a traumatic weekend and our anti-fascist demonstrations as the springboard for his campaign
— #HandsOffVenezuela (@uvastudentpower) April 25, 2019
UVa Students United uses the image of that same banner as its cover photo.
Facebook screenshot.
As Ashley Rae Goldenberg at the Capital Research Center noted, UVa Students United frequently retweets content from Antifa groups such as New York City Antifa. The organization takes radical lefist positions and demonizes those who disagree.
The organization’s principles oppose any platform for “white supremacy,” and argue that “white supremacist fascists have power” and intend to create “a white ethno-state, and threaten the existence of all people who are not white, Christian, cisgender, and heterosexual.”
UVa Students United demonizes police as a force for “white supremacy” and denounces civility as “tyranny:”
Cops and the Klan go hand in hand. Policing is a historically and inherently racist institution, and the police and judicial system protects and legitimizes white supremacy.
Civility is tyranny. No calls for civility or politeness, especially directed towards people of color, who have endured generations of oppression and violence at the hands of the state and complicit white people.
Yet the leftist group seems rather inactive. According to Goldenberg, UVa Students United held its most recent event in October 2018. It has shared links to events hosted by other groups, however, such as the University Democrats at UVA’s “#ICEOutofCville” event.
The organization has a list of “Demands for your university,” including a ban on all funding for the conservative “hate group” Turning Point USA.
While Joe Biden used the leftist group’s photo in his video, he seems unlikely to respond to the group’s complaint. UVa Students United has a mere 1,276 followers on Twitter and 2,542 “likes” on Facebook.
Yet this organization does represent an angry fringe on the left that seems to rear its head rather frequently, especially on college campuses. This group’s decision to demonize Biden captures the division in the Democratic Party. While Biden represents an old guard, nostalgic about Obama and perhaps willing to work with Republicans (occasionally) to make America better, radicals like Bernie Sanders will take no prisoners in their rush to socialism. Yet not even they are radical enough for Antifa…
Follow Tyler O’Neil, the author of this article, on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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