What is Joe Biden doing?

That’s the question a lot of people are asking. Last week, Biden found himself embroiled in a controversy, not from the right, but pushed from his left over his tacit praise of segregationists as “civil.” He also made a tone-deaf comment that they never called him “boy,” which only further inflamed matters. Biden was attempting to bolster his image as a guy who can work across the aisle, except in this case the segregationists were his fellow Democrats. The entire thing ended up blowing up in his face as Democrats and media outlets alike began digging up comments in his past that call into question his record on race.

Apparently learning nothing from last week’s episode, Biden has been caught on tape again speaking well of a segregationist. This time it’s his self-described mentor Fritz Hollings.

Joe Biden today: “The only thing I miss is my buddy Fritz Hollings, he was one of my mentors and I’m sorry he’s not here”

Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-SC) was a segregationist who said blacks attend trade conferences so they can “get a good square meal” rather than “eating each other” pic.twitter.com/vYAlBmmtNd

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) June 22, 2019

That happened just yesterday. How do you go from a week of non-stop negative press over comments about segregationists to fondly reminiscing about another segregationist just days later? Biden is a gaffe machine but you’d think he could at least avoid making the same mistake twice in nearly as many days.

Even before this latest screw-up though, I noticed a growing trend among some on the right. Namely, defenses being made of Biden’s remarks.

Take Ben Shapiro’s latest podcast from Friday. During the show, he spends a good amount of time showing how the left’s attacks on Biden are bad faith and driving home how unfair they are.

Now, do I disagree with Ben? No, and he’s one of the only political podcasts I listen too regularly. But I do think Biden’s remarks were stupid and ill-advised. Given that, if the former Vice President is dead set on dousing himself in gasoline and lighting a match, I don’t feel any duty to spray him down with a hose.

Biden represents one of the biggest threats to conservatives in the country right now precisely because he (currently) matches up so well against Donald Trump, specifically in the rust belt states. That could of course change in a general, and I expect the race to close greatly, but I’m speaking only in the present for the purpose of this write up.

In the present, we have a chance to let Biden collapse in on himself. I say let him collapse.

I do not believe that decency or “truth-telling” demands a defense from conservatives of a politician who’s spent decades making bad faith arguments about them and their ideals. Biden couldn’t even be bothered to defend Mike Pence as a person after the left lost their minds over the VP being referred to as a decent guy. Further, would Biden defend Ben Shapiro if someone made an unfair attack against him? Of course not and you wouldn’t expect him to.

None of this is to say conservatives can’t (and shouldn’t at times) defend and help people on the other side of the aisle, but we are only dealing with politics here, not life or death. In my humble opinion, if Biden is choosing to set himself on fire, politically speaking, let him burn.

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