Joe Biden apologizes for “lynching” comment after 1998 Clinton probe footage resurfaces

Former Vice President Joe Biden joined was amongst the voices of Democrats condemning President Donald Trump for being racially insensitive and comparing impeachment to “lynching.” But thanks to recently unearthed footage that shows him using the term in a similar context, he’s now issued an apology.

Tuesday, the president tweeted, “So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights. All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching. But we will WIN!”

And the unearthed footage of Biden talking about the Republican impeachment efforts towards President Bill Clinton in 1998, sound eerily similar.

“Even if the President should be impeached, history is going to question whether or not this was just a partisan lynching or whether or not it was something that in fact met the standard, the very high bar, that was set by the founders as to what constituted an impeachable offense,” Biden said in an October 1998 interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

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Joe Biden in 1998:

“Even if the President should be impeached, history is going to question whether or not this was just a partisan lynching…” pic.twitter.com/6p31OiShYr

— Trump War Room (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TrumpWarRoom) October 22, 2019

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But in stark contrast, this week he responded to Trump on Twitter, opining, “Impeachment is not ‘lynching,’ it is part of our Constitution. Our country has a dark, shameful history with lynching, and to even think about making this comparison is abhorrent. It’s despicable.”

And according to Newsweek, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, also fiercely condemning the president’s choice of words, asking, “How dare the president compare lynching to impeachment. How dare he do this?”

“Does he not know the history of lynching in this country?” Green continued. “Does he not know that thousands of African Americans were lynched? Mob violence. Does he not know this is the equivalent of murder? How dare the president compare a lawful constitutional process to mob violence and lynching.”

Tuesday evening, Biden got wind of the footage that had been uncovered of him making the same mistake and issued a formal apology, conceding, “This wasn’t the right word to use and I’m sorry about that. Trump on the other hand chose his words deliberately today in his use of the word lynching and continues to stoke racial divides in this country daily.”

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This wasn’t the right word to use and I’m sorry about that. Trump on the other hand chose his words deliberately today in his use of the word lynching and continues to stoke racial divides in this country daily. https://t.co/mHfFC8HluZ

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 23, 2019