Well, this is awkward.

It seems like ages ago, but Joe Biden launched his campaign by lying about commentary from President Trump regarding Charlottesville. Biden repeated the falsehood that the President had called the neo-nazis marching “very fine people.” In fact, he made a point to exclude them from any such qualifier, pointing out that they were undoubtedly evil.

For posterity, here’s Trump’s full comment.

“Excuse me, they didn’t put themselves down as neo-Nazis, and you had some very bad people in that group.  But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides.  You had people in that group – excuse me, excuse me, I saw the same pictures you did.  You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.”

After another question at that press conference, Trump became even more explicit:

“I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists because they should be condemned totally.” 

Now, a clip of Joe Biden having a real, not out of context “very fine people” moment has emerged.

I just spliced together Joe Biden's campaign launch ad attacking Trump for his "fine people" comment and Joe Biden himself saying in 1993 that there are "many fine people" who display the confederate flag.

It really is something. pic.twitter.com/RmC5Q0eF4V

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) June 17, 2020

In a vacuum, Biden isn’t necessarily wrong. While I’ve got no real care for the Confederate flag and have no problem with it being shunned in polite society, I also understand there are some people who have flown it in the past without racial animus being their reasoning. The cultural ties are real and it will take time for those to fade. That’s likely what Biden was trying to get across here.

But I didn’t make the rules. I didn’t make 2020’s woke culture which says you must be cancelled if you sin against woke-ism. Praising people who fly the Confederate flag applies here.

Of course, Biden’s hypocrisy is the worst part of this. He’s repeatedly lied about Trump’s comments quoted above, yet here he is essentially doing the same thing. Remember, Trump’s reasoning, agree with it or not, is that there are some people who don’t want statutes torn down but that aren’t motivated by racism. Biden is saying the same thing here, except he’s not even qualifying it the way Trump did to pointedly exclude outspoken racists.

Biden’s problems with race aren’t going away, they are only escalating. It’s not so much a question of whether people suddenly vote for Trump as it is one of what turnout will look like. The more the 1994 crime bill and Biden’s past statements come to the forefront, the worse his standing will get.