Trent Lott thinks Joe Biden is the strongest Democratic presidential candidate
https://news.yahoo.com/trent-lott-t...ocratic-presidential-candidate-100015676.html
Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said Joe Biden is the only Democrat he thinks would be competitive in the 2020 election against President Trump.
Yahoo News podcast “The Long Game.”" data-reactid="17">“Joe will be able to perpetuate the image of Uncle Joe, and he is pleasant. He is qualified,” Lott, a Mississippi Republican, said in an interview for the
Yahoo News podcast “The Long Game.”
“Half this bunch in there right now is not qualified,” Lott said of the current Democratic field.
When asked whether Trump is qualified for the presidency, since he has less experience in politics or government than any of the Democratic candidates, Lott laughed in acknowledgment of the point.
“I guess you could argue he’s more qualified now than he was three years ago,” Lott said with a chuckle.
But Lott said he thinks Trump’s chances of being reelected are “surprisingly strong.” Even Biden, he said, would be “pulverized … in many respects” by Trump.
Lott touted himself as a supporter of the president, even though, he said, Trump in the 2016 election “was not my first choice, or second, or third, or fourth or fifth.”
“I was for [former Ohio Gov. John] Kasich,” Lott said. But he added he had no interest in supporting Kasich if he decides to run against Trump in the Republican primary.
“I won’t be for Kasich again. I’ve been disappointed in how he’s conducted himself since then,” Lott said.
Lott was Senate majority leader from 1996 to 2000. Democrats briefly regained the Senate majority in May of 2001, after Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont left the Republican Party, became an independent, and began to caucus with the Democrats, breaking a 50-50 tie. Lott remained as the Republican leader in the Senate until the end of 2002, when he resigned the post after making racially inflammatory comments.
Lott said at a birthday party for former Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., in December 2002 that if Thurmond had been elected president in 1948, “we wouldn’t have had all these problems over the years.”
Lott said he had simply meant the comment as a gesture of good will, but Thurmond was a segregationist whose 1948 run for president was built around resisting the desegregation of the U.S. military. Lott resigned after intense criticism for his remark.
When asked about the current controversies in Virginia over Gov. Ralph Northam’s admitting to having worn blackface in medical school, Lott said, “It reminds me, if you’re going to get in trouble, you need to be a Democrat, because Republicans will throw you to the wolves in a minute.”
[I feel like maybe this needs some qualifier because I don’t know that’s completely true. Look at Al Franken.]
“In a way, I feel sorry for them,” Lott said of Northam and the two other top two officials in Virginia, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and Attorney General Mark Herring. Fairfax has been accused by two women of sexual assault, and Herring also has admitted he wore blackface in college.
“I don’t think we’re at a healthy point,” with regard to the national conversation about race, Lott said. He added the response to mistakes on race has “gone a little bit overboard.” And on accusations of sexual assault, Lott said Fairfax should have “due process” before any decisions are made regarding his future.
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