Former Vice-President, and current 2020 presidential candidate, Joe Biden told an audience at the NAACP Convention in Detroit, Michigan, on Wednesday that if his civil rights record were as shaky as his opponents like to claim, President Barack Obama would not have selected him as his running mate, The Hill reports.
“They did a significant background check … I doubt he would have picked me if these accusations about me being wrong on civil rights was correct,” Biden said.
The crowd erupted in applause.
Biden has taken hits on his position on federally mandated busing in the 1970s, and also for his authorship of the 1994 Crime Bill.
Thus far, Obama has declined to endorse his former vice-president, or anyone else on the 2020 road to the White House.
At the 2019 Essence Festival, former First Lady Michelle Obama said both she and her husband would support whomever is the eventual Democratic Party nominee.