A clip resurfaced of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden comparing the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to the killing of George Floyd, CengNews reports.
In June 2020, Biden said “…but even Dr. King’s assassination did not have the worldwide impact that George Floyd’s death did” during a roundtable discussion in Philadelphia.
“It’s like when people saw Bull Connor and his dogs ripping the clothes off elderly black women going to church and firehoses ripping the skin off young kids on television, it changed the Civil Rights movement for the better,” he said, according to CengNews. “Whаt hаppened to George Floyd — now you’ve got millions of cell phones аll over the country.”
“Everyone’s perspective on this hаs shifted,” he continued. “Look аt how many people аre mаrching аround the world.”
The resurfaced video has since attracted criticism after being reposted on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Remind me . . . when is the national holiday for George Floyd?
— I’m the other kind . . . (@anthonybakker3) January 17, 2022
King’s niece, Alveda King, expressed her disapproval, too.
“I believe that Mr. Biden continues to speak from his basement, from a reality that is different from what’s happening in the real world,” she said, Newsweek reports.
“Why is it necessary to compare Martin Luther King Jr. and George Floyd?” she continued.
On Monday, however, Biden took to Twitter posting a clip on voting rights urging the notion that civilians should be “living up to [King’s] legacy.
Living up to his legacy, and what Dr. King believed our nation could become requires more than just reflection — it requires action.
That is why the Congress must pass Federal legislation to protect the right to vote. pic.twitter.com/I2CviMIt8I
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 17, 2022
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin plead guilty in federal court to violating Floyd’s civil rights, as Blavity previously reported. He was sentenced to 22 and half years in prison.
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