Biden's remarks regarding his work with pro-segregation senators Talmadge and Eastland and using the word "boy" elicited response from Cory Booker. When called out by Senator Cory Booker, the former vice president said that the junior senator from New Jersey should apologize, "there's not a racist bone in my body..." said the former VP. However, Mr Booker didn't call Joe Biden a racist, he corrected him for an insensitive mistake while reiterating his respect.
"You don't joke about calling black men 'boys.' Men like James O. Eastland used words like that, and the racist policies that accompanied them, to perpetuate white supremacy and strip black Americans of our very humanity," Booker said in a statement. "Vice President Biden's relationships with proud segregationists are not the model for how we make America a safer and more inclusive place for black people, and for everyone. I have to tell Vice President Biden, as someone I respect, that he is wrong for using his relationships with Eastland and Talmadge as examples of how to bring our country together," he added. "And frankly, I'm disappointed that he hasn't issued an immediate apology for the pain his words are dredging up for many Americans. He should."
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Booker added, "For his posture to be, 'I've done nothing wrong, you should apologize, I'm not a racist,' is so insulting and so missing the larger point that he should not have to have explained to him, that this is not a lesson that someone who is running for president of the united states should have to be given."