Joe Biden said Wednesday that President Donald Trump was the first “racist” U.S. president to be elected. Biden, the former vice president and the presumptive Democratic 2020 nominee, responded to a participant in a virtual town hall who expressed concern over Trump repeatedly blaming the new coronavirus on Asian people by referring to it as the “China virus” and the “Kung flu.” Biden said, “The way he deals with people based on the color of their skin, their national origin, where they’re from, is absolutely sickening... No sitting president has ever done this. Never, never, never. No Republican president has done this. No Democratic president. We’ve had racists, and they’ve existed, they’ve tried to get elected president. He’s the first one that has.” Trump is not the first racist U.S. president. A dozen U.S. presidents owned slaves. Just last month, Princeton University said it would President Woodrow Wilson’s name from its public policy school and a residential college due to his racist views and actions like re-segregating federal employees.
