Biden Recalls Spending Time With Segregationists During National Prayer Breakfast

President Joe Biden reflected on the time he spent with segregationists while delivering remarks during the National Prayer Breakfast.

Biden shared a story about the time after his wife and daughter were killed in an accident.

“I remember Teddy would always come and say, ‘Come to lunch,'” Biden said. “I didn’t want any part of going to lunch, one day he just dragged me over to lunch, he said, ‘You’ll learn more there than anyplace else.'”

The president remembered how he would go to lunch “literally every day and listen to the senior members.”

He continued, “And you learn about their losses, their happiness. You learn about them, you learn about their, you know.”

Biden recalled sitting down with Jim Eastland, a segregationist and opponent of civil rights legislation, and how he “wasn’t about to sit in John Stennis’s seat.”

Eastland then urged Biden to sit down.

“So I ordered my hamburger, took a couple of bites and in walks John Stennis and I immediately put a napkin on all my stuff, and I said, ‘I’m finished, Mr. Chairman. Come on right here,'” Biden said.

He added, “I later got a handwritten letter from about three o’clock this afternoon: ‘I appreciate the honor of you recognizing my seat, but you didn’t finish your meal, I promise this favor will be returned.'”

Noting Stennis endorsed him when he ran for president, Biden joked, “I think that was an expensive hamburger for him.”

“But I guess I’m trying to say is, you know, when you know one another, when you know, and no matter how badly you disagree, and people think that in the days it’s divided here, we had a lot of flat out segregationists still in our caucus,” Biden explained.

Additionally, Biden remembered, “Teddy Kennedy would argue like hell with Jim Eastland, go down over lunch, didn’t agree with one another, but they treated each other with respect even in that day.”

In 2019, Biden received criticism for his comments about working with segregationists. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) argued in a statement, working with “proud segregationists” is not the best way to unite the country.

Biden later told reporters Booker should apologize, adding, “He knows better. There’s not a racist bone in my body. I’ve been involved in civil rights my whole career. Period.”