President Joe Biden lashed out on Wednesday during his national press conference when a reporter reminded him he compared opponents for eliminating the filibuster for voting rights to dead segregationists.
Biden last week said in Atlanta that those who stand in the way of his election reform legislation must decide whose side they are on. The president inferred those who are in favor of salvaging the filibuster are allied with notorious racists.
During his nearly two-hour press conference on Wednesday, Biden was reminded of the comments by Philip Wegmann with RealClearPolitics, and he went from pleasant to ruffled.
Weggman asked, “You know, you campaigned and you ran on a return to civility and I know that you dispute the characterization that you called folks who would oppose those voting bills as being Bull Connor or George Wallace, but you said that they would be sort of in the same camp?”
Biden lost his temper a bit in his response.
Biden said, “No, I didn’t say that. Look, what I said, go back and read what I said! And tell me, if you think I called anyone who voted on the side of a position taken by Bull Connor that they were Bull Connor.”
Biden then challenged Wegmann’s reading comprehension skills.
“That is an interesting reading in English,” Biden said. “I assume you got into journalism because you like to write.”
Wegmann then attempted to get back to the subject, when he asked,
Biden responded by saying those who stand in the way of his legislation will be on the wrong side of history:
No, here’s the thing, there’s certain things that are so consequential you have to speak from your heart as well as your head. I was speaking out forcefully on what I think to be at stake. That’s what it is. And by the way, no one, no one forgets who was on the side of King versus Bull Connor. No one. The history books will note it. I was making the case. Don’t think this is a freebie. You don’t get to vote this way and then somehow it goes away. This will be — stick with you the rest of your career, and long after you’re gone.
Watch above, via CNN.