CBS News became the first mainstream outlet Sunday to ask Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden about his recent radical rhetoric, including calls for “revolutionary, institutional changes.”
As Breitbart News has reported, Biden adopted increasingly radical language after winning the Democratic primary, sounding more like his former rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
For example:
- May 4: Biden calls coronavirus an “incredible opportunity … to fundamentally transform the country”
- May 11: Biden says America needs “revolutionary, institutional changes”
- June 2: Biden calls for America to deal with “systemic racism”
- July 4: Biden promises to “transform” America and “rip the roots of systemic racism out of this country”
- July 9: Biden vows an “end to the era of shareholder capitalism”
- July 13: Biden promises “systemic” and “institutional” changes
- July 28: Biden promises to be “one of the most progressive presidents in U.S. history”
In the May 11 example above, Biden told a podcast with former rival Andrew Yang that the country needed “revolutionary institutional changes” and talked about the coming “revolution.”
On 60 Minutes, O’Donnell asked Biden to explain, and he replied that he wanted to tackle “institutional racism” and the “accumulation of wealth.”
From the CBS transcript:
Norah O’Donnell: I was listening to one of your podcasts and you said we need some revolutionary, institutional changes. Like what?
Former Vice President Joe Biden: Well, for example, I think we have to fundamentally change the way in which we deal with– institutional racism. For example– one of the hardest things, beyond police issues, there’s the issue of accumulation of wealth. There’s an awful lot of Black Americans who are equally as– they’re as qualified as white Americans based on the same status they’re in in terms of economic opportunity but they don’t get a chance. So, for example, if we just made every corporation pay minimum 15% tax; you got 91 pay no tax. That raises over $400 billion. I can send every single qualified person to a four-year college in their state for $150 billion. I can make sure every single person who qualifies community college can go and we still have a lotta money left over. That’s what I mean by significant institutional changes.
Later, Biden’s campaign was forced to correct his statement, as he had mischaracterized his own education policy by underestimating the cost of free public college by half.
Though Biden has shunned the word “moderate,” his wife, educator Dr. Jill Biden, has insisted that is the most appropriate word to describe him.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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