RNC Co-Chair Calls Out Biden's Demeaning Statements

MEMORANDUM

From:               RNC Co-Chairman Sharon Day

To:                    Interested Parties

Date:                October 19, 2011

Re:                   Vice President Biden’s Demagoguery Is Demeaning To Women, Victims

 

Yesterday in Philadelphia, Vice President Biden decided to express his support for President Obama's Stimulus 2.0 plan by explaining to a crowd that he wished opponents "knew what it felt like to be robbed or raped." Nothing could be more irresponsible and mean spirited. No victim of violent crime would ever wish that others were forced to experience the same trauma they went though – especially to make a brazen political point. So why would the sitting Vice President of the United States?

 

But this isn’t the first time the Vice President has used this irresponsible argument out on the stump. He used a similar line last week in Flint, Michigan saying that if the President’s stimulus bill isn’t passed, there will be a nationwide epidemic of rape and murder.  Clearly this isn’t another case of "Joe being Joe," but a calculated messaging point from the Administration to try and gin up support for another round of failed stimulus spending. This is a familiar theme from the White House which has often resorted to over-the-top rhetoric in an attempt to generate support for its policies. So why all the silence from the media? Where is the outrage from women’s and victim’s rights groups?

 

To link well-justified, bipartisan opposition to the President’s latest stimulus proposal to violent crime is intellectually dishonest and reeks of the kind of gutter politics that the Obama Administration purports to be above. This is the kind of demagoguery one might expect from backbench bombthrowers not a constitutional officer of the United States who is second in line to the presidency and who at any minute could be called upon to lead the free world. Not only is this rhetoric beneath the office of our nation’s second highest constitutional office, it undermines serious policy discussions taking place about how to put Americans back to work.

 

Our economy is hurting and the Obama Administration’s policies have only prolonged the pain, but that is no excuse for Vice President Biden to wish his political opponents to be subjected to rape or have a gun held to their head. Victims of violent crime should not to be used for political gain. The office he holds demands that what he says be treated with a level of importance. It’s time for the media and women’s groups to step up and hold the Vice President accountable for his irresponsible and insensitive choice of words.