Exclusive: Republicans condemn Biden’s role in anti-white conference

Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Rep. Matt Gaetz are rebuking President Joe Biden for his participation in a conference that elevated anti-white and anti-police rhetoric.

The Spectator reported last week that Biden delivered the opening address at the Root Institute 2021, an annual virtual conference hosted by the Root, an online media outlet that primarily covers the black community. During the conference, panelists espoused prejudiced ideas against white people and condemned policing. A Rutgers University professor called white people ‘corrupt’, ‘morally and spiritually bankrupt’ and ‘committed to being villains’, while other participants said that police ‘actively make our communities less safe’ and that their primary goal is to control and oppress black people.

Rep. Gaetz called it ’embarrassing’ for Biden to speak at the event, telling The Spectator, ‘The Root conference espouses anti-white ethno-nationalism. It is embarrassing for an American president to be there, if he in fact knows where he is.’

Sen. Blackburn commented that Biden’s decision to speak at the conference betrayed his alleged desire for national unity.

‘President Biden made the decision to not only attend, but speak at an event that was filled with discriminatory and anti-police rhetoric,’ Blackburn said in a statement to The Spectator. ‘Joe Biden has promised from the beginning of his presidency to be a Commander-in-Chief that unifies the American people. He not only has failed to do that, he’s furthered divisions.’

Biden called for unity in his inaugural address this past January, stating that his ‘whole soul’ is in ‘bringing America together’ and ‘uniting our people.’ He called ‘anger’, ‘resentment’ and ‘hatred’ the country’s ‘common foes’.

The White House did not respond last week when asked why Biden chose to participate in the conference given the Root‘s history of publishing radical and discriminatory content, such as calling Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas an ‘Uncle Thomas’ and downplaying the horror of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting because it primarily harmed white people.