Prominent liberal writer Ta-Nehisi Coates told Democracy Now that Joe Biden should not be president and the former vice president owes his current political position as the leading Democratic presidential candidate due to his relationship with Barack Obama.
A host for Democracy Now asked Coates if Biden should apologize for his remarks earlier in the week that praised the level of "civility" he witnessed in the Senate working with Southern segregationists senators.
"Joe Biden shouldn’t be president," Coates said. "If he ends up being the nominee, better him than Trump, but I think that’s a really, really low standard."
Coates went on to criticize Biden for his remarks about former Senators Jim Eastland and Herman Talmadge and for his previous opposition to busing and criminal justice reforms.
"Joe Biden owes his very presence in the race, right now, to the first black president, to Barack Obama. And if it were up to Eastland, and if it were up to Talmadge, Barack Obama would not only not be in the White House, he actually would not exist," Coates added.
Coates, who has written numerous articles and books about his experience as an African-American in today's society, testified at a Congressional committee on Tuesday in favor of legislation that would create a commission to "study and develop reparation proposals for African-Americans."
In 2014, Coates authored a widely praised article for The Atlantic entitled "The Case for Reparations," which has been credited as helping restart the debate over the controversial policy. Numerous Democratic presidential primary candidates have endorsed reparations of some form during the primary campaign including Senators Kamala Harris (D., Calif.), Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), and Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.).