This Fired Up Video Of Joe Biden Calling Out President Trump Is Giving Me Life
Former Vice President Joe Biden is firing shots at the Trump administration for fostering the "forces of intolerance." On Saturday, Sept. 15, former Vice President Joe Biden didn't hold back as he called out President Donald Trump for using the White House as a "literal bully pulpit" and failing to protect the most vulnerable at the annual Human Rights Campaign dinner. Elite Daily reached out to the White House for comment on Biden's speech, but didn't hear back by the time of publication. This video of Joe Biden's response to Trump's 2017 Charlottesville comments at the LGBTQ charity event shows that he's not having any of it, and the impassioned speech is giving me life.
As activists and politicians gathered at one of the biggest LGBTQ charity events of the year, Biden took to the pulpit along with his wife, Jill Biden, and several other progressive-leaning speakers to celebrate the advancement of LGBTQ rights as well as to discuss factors that have stood in the face of further progress. Biden's speech took on a fiery tone as he addressed one of these factors, namely President Trump's time in the White House, which he said has allowed "forces of intolerance" to prosper. Elite Daily reached out to the White House for comment on Biden's speech, but didn't hear back by the time of publication.
"Barack [Obama] and I agreed to remain silent for a while to give this administration a chance to get up and running the first year," he told the crowd in a video from the dinner. "God forgive me. But, I could not remain silent after Charlottesville."
Referencing the Aug. 2017 riots where white supremacists clashed with counter-protestors, Biden continued, "This is about basic decency. The idea that goons could come out of fields at night with lighted torches, carrying Nazi flags, chanting the same exact anti-Semitic bile that was chanted in the streets of Nuremberg and Berlin and every other city in the ‘30s."
Biden then slammed President Trump's controversial responses that there are "very fine people on both sides" and that there is "hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides," which received backlash for not explicitly condemning white supremacy.
"This is deadly earnest," he added. "We are in a fight for America’s soul. And we have leaders, who at the time when that occurred, when these guys were accompanied by white supremacists and Ku Klux Klan and those that objected, making a comparison saying 'there are good people in both groups.'"
"What has become of us?" Biden asked the crowd. "Our children are listening, and our silence is complicity."
The former vice president then called out President Trump directly, as he called the fight for LGBTQ equality "the civil rights issue of our day."
"Forces of intolerance remain determined to undermine and roll back the progress you have made. This time they — not you — have an ally in the White House," he said. "Instead of using the full might of the executive branch to secure justice, dignity, and safety for all, the president uses the White House as a literal bully pulpit, callously exerting his power over those who have little or none."
Things took a more hopeful turn towards the end of the speech, as the 75-year-old concluded his fervent monologue by putting the power back on the American people. Despite the Trump Administration's policies and the potential confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh looming ahead, Biden says all hope is not lost. Biden says he believes that the country can prevent a rollback of LGBTQ rights if people stay informed about what's going on and "we should be reminding them."
"I have confidence in the face of this onslaught that the vast majority of the American people are with us," Biden concluded. "It's the story of supporting many brave Americans who came out and spoke up."
Biden 2020?
