House Speaker Mike Johnson criticized President Biden for remarks he made at a fundraiser Wednesday saying the GOP is worse than the “real racists” he’s worked with in Congress.
“Outrageous,” Mr. Johnson wrote on X. “The least popular president to seek reelection is now so desperate and so underwater in the polls he’s playing the race card from the bottom.”
Mr. Biden, who was in San Francisco, brought up former South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, who was against civil rights as a Democrat until 1964, when he became a Republican.
“I’ve been a senator since ’72. I’ve served with real racists. I’ve served with Strom Thurmond. I’ve served with all these guys that have set terrible records on race,” Mr. Biden told the crowd, according to the White House press pool.
“But guess what? These guys are worse. These guys do not believe in basic democratic principles,” he said.
He told the crowd that “time and again Republicans show they are the party of chaos and division.”
His comments come as Republicans keep shooting down foreign aid bills they see as wasting money on Ukraine and blocking border deals that include amnesty for illegal immigrants.
The government is heading toward another partial shutdown on March 1 unless the two houses can agree on a budget or another stopgap measure.