Former Vice President Joe Biden picked up another big endorsement with civil rights icon and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) signaling his approval for the fellow politician whom he called “a friend, a man of courage, a man of conscience.”
According to the CNN, the congressman, who revealed back in December that he was battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer, said that even with his health problems, which he said “will not be with me forever,” it is his intention to “travel around America” to support Biden.
“I know what it is to campaign hard and to work hard, and I will be out there working and campaigning for Joe Biden as president of the United States of America.”
“Joe Biden would not be afraid to stand up and preach the way of peace, the way of love, will not be afraid to preach the fight that we must respect the dignity and the worth of every human being,” he added. “He can help us and will help us regain our way as a nation and as a people.”
With Lewis’ endorsement, Biden showcases more of the strong support he has with the Black community. Lewis, a revered civil rights leader, protested alongside Martin Luther King Jr. during the voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. in 1965. Lewis’ skull was fractured by white officers on the notorious “Bloody Sunday.”
Lewis gave nod to that fight for freedom in a video he recorded for Biden’s campaign.
“If you see something that is not right, you have a moral obligation to speak up,” Lewis said in the video. “You judge the character of a man by how he chooses to respond to that moral obligation.”
“Vice President Joe Biden has never stopped speaking up for his fellow man,” he adds. “Joe Biden and I both believe that we are in a fight to redeem the soul of America.”
“Joe Biden would not be afraid to stand up and preach the way of peace, the way of love, will not be afraid to preach the fight that we must respect the dignity and the worth of every human being,” the congressman reiterated on the call Monday with reporters. “He can help us and will help us regain our way as a nation and as a people.”
When asked if he believed Biden should select a woman of color as his running mate – something House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn as urged the former VP to do – Lewis said that Biden should explore his options.
“It would be good to have a woman of color. It would be good to have a woman,” he said. “It would be good to have a woman look like the rest of America — smart, gifted, a fighter, a warrior.”
“We have plenty of able women, some of black, white, Latino, Asian American, Native American,” he added. “I think the time has long past of making the White House look like the whole of America.”