Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 11:21 am
The following is an editorial by PoliticusUSA’s managing editor and co-publisher Sarah Jones.
Voters should be asking themselves what kind of person doesn’t know that this is inappropriate?
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All day today, the Biden family grieved as Former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden lay in honor in the Delaware Senate Chamber, with a receiving line that began past Beau’s flag draped casket and led to the Biden family.
Video of Cruz making Biden joke:
Meanwhile, back at the GOP circus, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has his eyes set on the White House in 2016. On the way there, he does things like this. Last night, the Republican 2016 hopeful was speaking to Republicans in Howell, Michigan when he dredged up one of his popular lines, “Joe Biden. You know the nice thing? You don’t need a punch line.”
There is never a moment when it doesn’t pay to be vicious and cruel for Ted Cruz type Republicans.
The Vice President was mourning the death of his son Beau, who was beloved by everyone pretty much and an all around great son, father, and husband to boot. Delaware Governor Jack Markell said of him today at the service that because of Beau Biden, “the children of Delaware are safer for generations to come.” Markell called Beau a model husband, father and son, at which point Joe Biden teared up.
Beau Biden served his country to great acclaim. He died after a two-year fight against brain cancer at the young age of 46.
Joe Biden has already buried his first wife and a young daughter after a tragic accident in 1972, and now he is burying his son Beau. There aren’t words to express the emotional pain the Biden family must be facing right now.
This is not a moment to make fun of the Vice President. That is obvious to pretty much everyone but Ted Cruz.
Cruz has apologized for this on his Facebook page (never in public, or else he would risk losing the support of the frothing ragers who donate to his cult of cruelty). Wednesday evening, he wrote, “It was a mistake to use an old joke about Joe Biden during his time of grief.” It’s as if Cruz didn’t realize that he shouldn’t have said that until the backlash heat burned him.
It’s noted that he apologized, but as a presidential candidate and a Senator, he never should have made this “joke”.
Pundits were busy justifying Cruz’s comment by saying Joe Biden would forgive because that is who Joe is. Yes, maybe he will. But that is not the point. The point is that Ted Cruz has almost no soul.
That Joe Biden is a magnanimous man full of grace and forgiveness for others is not a surprise.
There is no apology that can make up for this kind of failure of judgment. We do not see other Republicans saying such awful things. There is a level of decorum and behavior that is expected from people no matter what side of the aisle they take. This is not it.
Our politics are centered on policy, but there is a line that should not be crossed and Senator Ted Cruz has officially crossed it. He is not only not fit to be president, he isn’t fit to be a sitting senator.
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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