(CNN) – At the commemoration of the historic Selma to Montgomery civil rights march, Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday expressed guilt for not joining the Alabama demonstration nearly half a century ago.
The vice president also used the opportunity to lament the dozens of voting restrictions proposed by states in the last couple of years and argued against a challenge to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that's now being heard in the Supreme Court.
Follow @politicalticker
In his speech, Biden said he watched the first bloody march as a senior in college. The scene, he said, gave him heavy convictions.
"I regret - and although it's not a part of what I'm supposed to say - I apologize it took me 48 years to get here," Biden said, shortly before joining a crowd to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. "I should have been here. It's one of the regrets that I have and many in my generation have."
The vice president, walking arm-in-arm with notable civil rights activists such as Rep. John Lewis, led the crowd of thousands across the same bridge where police met protestors with brutal force nearly 50 years ago.
"Most of us thought that the hatred the viciousness the bigotry that we'd seen in our own states had at least subsided," Biden said, reflecting on watching the protests. "What we saw was entrenched hostility and prejudice coming face to face with undaunted courage and resolve - a resolve so powerful that it inspired the Congress and the nation to support the Voting Rights Act just four months later."
Biden was elected to the Senate just seven years out of college at the age of 29. Leading up to his first run, he said, "nothing shaped my consciousness (more)...than what happened here in Selma."
This appearance was Biden's first at the tribute. President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came to Selma in 2007 when they were both seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Biden, himself, has not ruled out a 2016 presidential bid.
While Obama did not accompany Biden on Sunday, the president made headlines when he mentioned Selma and other landmark events in the civil rights movement during his second inauguration speech in January.
"We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths - that all of us are created equal - is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall," he said.
On March 7, 1965, police clashed with nearly 600 marchers in Selma, forcing them back from the Edmund Pettus Bridge with batons and tear gas. On a day that later became known as "Bloody Sunday," police said they were enforcing then-Gov. George Wallace's ban on demonstrations.
Carrying on the march, the demonstrators ultimately made it to the state's capital, Montgomery, on March 24. The vice president applauded those who took part in the demonstrations, saying they helped "liberate the soul of the United States of America."
"You lost the battle that day, but you won the war," he told the audience at the foot of the bridge. "And in the process you did something that could never be changed: you won the hearts and minds of your fellow citizens all across America."
In a separate speech earlier in the day, Biden added the fight still continues in 2013, pointing to a series of voting laws proposed during the 2012 election and warning of the current case at the Supreme Court involving the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The court will decide this year on challenges to Section 5, a part of the act that gives the federal government open-ended oversight of states and localities, mostly in the South, with a history of voter discrimination. As the law now stands, changes in voting laws and procedures in all or parts of 16 covered states must be "pre-cleared" with Washington.
Read more: Justices offer split views on Voting Rights Act enforcement
Conservative justices on Wednesday suggested it was a constitutionally unnecessary vestige of the civil rights era. The provision was reauthorized by Congress in 2006 for another 25 years and officials in Shelby County, Alabama, subsequently filed suit, saying the monitoring was overly burdensome and unwarranted.
But advocates for the provision say it's necessary to protect voting rights. Biden on Sunday lambasted the idea that Section 5 was even up for debate.
"Strom Thurmond voted for its reauthorization, and yet it's being challenged in Supreme Court of United States of America as we stand here today," Biden said.
The vice president also highlighted other states' attempts to pass voter identification laws last year during the election. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 32 states have some sort of voter identification law. Those states include Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas, places that also must get Voting Rights Act clearance before enacting new laws.
Democrats have said that such laws are politically motivated and intended to suppress the minority vote, given that fewer people in minority groups carry government-issued IDs. Republicans, meanwhile, make the case that such laws prevent fraud and protect the integrity of the system.
Biden acknowledged that Americans have changed during the last five decades but emphasized "we've come too far together to turn back." And in closing his remarks earlier Sunday, the vice president reiterated his regret of not traveling to walk in solidarity with the demonstrators in 1965.
"I still feel just a little bit of guilt; I was old enough," he said. "I could have been here. I should have been here, 48 years ago."
– CNN's Bill Mears contributed to this report.
From CNN Politics
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
I can't help but wonder what sort of reception any Republican would have had if he or she had tried to march yesterday with these folks in support or memory of the freedom struggle? Has the Republican party really left minority Americans, or have minority American's bought the DNC's hype so deeply that they reject Republicans outright? Now who's the hater?
@tm
very bold Joe., 50 years late, and completely safe politically.
what are doing today? thats relevant, and carries risk?,
nothing. you can bet on it.
===================================
Biden is leading the effort to introduce gun safety legislation. Think that doesn't carry political risk?
@Reverse the yada yada: "Has the Republican party really left minority Americans, or have minority American's bought the DNC's hype so deeply that they reject Republicans outright? Now who's the hater?"
I would say you are the hater, given you believe minorities are incapable of thinking for themselves and just blindly accept whatever the spokes persons for a political party tells them.
Sweetheart, you are describing the GOP base and their addiction to the liars on Fox. Minorities in this country have seen and experienced for themselves the animosity of the GOP – and unlike your base, they CAN think for themselves and vote accordingly.
I am so sick of hearing how the dems were against the Civil Rights movement back then. Ok that's how it WAS. But let's not forget the southern democrats. They were against the Civil Rights movement, they eventually became Republicans. Now in this day and age WHO is actually trying to violate our civil rights? That would be republicans and the Tea Party. Who has gone out of their way to offend and exclude ANYONE that is not a white male?? Republicans. Stop being hung up on a name or a handle, the bottom line is, the GOP are the masters of racism.
what a waste product= our current VP
Joe Biden : Sincerity is the key to being successful, once you can fake that you are golden.
Reverse-the-reverse-racism
I can't help but wonder what sort of reception any Republican would have had if he or she had tried to march yesterday with these folks in support or memory of the freedom struggle? Has the Republican party really left minority Americans, or have minority American's bought the DNC's hype so deeply that they reject Republicans outright?
------------------
Wonder all you like, but it's no big mystery. A Republican would have been welcomed just as Romney was at the NAACP meeting last year. Romney was applauded repeatedly during his remarks, and only got booed when he made one that the audience seem to find over the top. As far as minorities "buying into DNC hype", you are grossly mistaken. I think minorities are turned off by the right wing's hype.
"He's not one of us."
"Gangsta White House"
"Food Stamp President"
"We want to take our country back"
"I don't want to see 'blah' people getting ...."
"Self deportation"
"Where is his birth certificate?" "College Transcripts"
That is the hype that minorities hear from Republicans. Not only do they hear it, they do not hear other Republicans condemning any of it. Their silence is their tacit support. Minorities would have to be completely brain dead to want to join hands with people who say those types of things about minorities.
biden needs to apologize for his lack of a brain, but not this.
"Democrats have said that such laws are politically motivated and intended to suppress the minority vote, given that fewer people in minority groups carry government-issued IDs.."
I was just wondered if this is a factually accurate statement and if so, why do fewer people in minority groups carry government issued IDs. Most states require ID for a litany of services.
Wow Joe, that sounded so sincere...
All you need to do is look at the "POLICIES", listen to the words and form your own conclusion. Why do minorities vote predominately for dems? Because why would you vote for someone who:
a. Wants to change how you can vote (2012 legislation in many states called Voter I.D.)
b. Won't move from a regressive to a progressive tax system
c. Immigration (self deportation, really)?
c. Same sex marriage
d. Violence Against Women Act
e. Lilly Ledbetter Act (Fair pay for equal work)
f. Fillibuster (if Obama's for it, we're against it). Even if we first proposed it.
g. Abortion Rights (but for the death penalty). Someone still needs to explain that, but since people of color are disportionately on death row, maybe that explains it.
h. Now they are coming after the VOTE all together, sickening!!!
so when white people are a minority in this country, will these laws be re-written to protect them from prejudice and discrimination of the new majority?
dave
I apologize for the Debt G W Bush left our country
**********************************************************************************
I apologize for the debt that B H Obama has added to our country. Added more debt then ALL presidents combined.
Rudy NYC
Ancient Texan
Dave- The Bush debt was NOTHING compared to the mountain piled on us by Obama.
------
Most all of the debt that has been accumulated during the Obama administration are a direct result of Bush policies.
------
Yes, yes, yes... we know. Absolutely NOTHING that has happened over the last 4 years, OR the next 4 years is because of anything Obama has done. He is merely president in name only. His actual full time occupation is golfer, celebrity, attacker, demonizer, bloviater and campaigner.
Bizzare Crazy Uncle Joe! Anyone else embarrassed that this guy is our VP?
Is racism all wrong if it is at least partially true e.g. one segment of society exhibits inferior behavior consistently?
Oh please Biden. You would have joined in with the other white Dems that were promoting racism. So give me a freaking break. It left up to the Dems we would still have segregation, racism and oppression of minorities. No what we have now is a new form of enslavement that keeps minorites down, with subpar education, brainwashing that they are all victims and absolved of all responsiblities (like this POTUS), and entilements to keep them poor. So keep lining up and keep voting Democrat vote for poverty minorities, bad education and more welfare. It has been working so well for u for the past 50yrs.
Rudy NYC
Ancient Texan wrote:
Surprised that Joe didn't apologize for his part in slavery.....Yeah I know, he didn't own slaves...but while pandering.....
-----––
Americans were not surprised that not one notable Republican participated, nor even dignified the event with a remark.
***************************************************************************************************************************
Gee Rudy NYC, maybe that's because none of the Republicans owned slaves and they come from a family that lost folks in the Civil War fighting against slavery. By the way, Rudy NYC, I sure haven't heard many folks thanking many these days that have ancestors that lost their lives in the Civil War in in effort to stop slavery. Why's that, Rudy NYC, not important? Didn't think so.
Larry L
Biden is leading the effort to introduce gun safety legislation. Think that doesn't carry political risk?
-–
Oh, is that the new euphomism/lie of the left these days? They are advocating for "gun safety legislation"??? BWAHAHAHA. You just gotta love the lies the left spins when they rename everything in order to deceive people.
BTW, Biden is advising people to go out and BUY shoot guns and fire them in the air to scare off would be intruders. He is is actually taking a risk in advising people to perform illegal behavior with their newly acquired shoot guns, thanks to Joe's recommendation.
Joe Biden.... the laughing stock of the Democrat Party, that stands a heart beat away from the Presidency. The Failure-in-Chief, backed up by the Buffoon-in-Waiting.
Proof that you can go far in politics with a low IQ.
Polar Bear
Bizzare Crazy Uncle Joe! Anyone else embarrassed that this guy is our VP?
March 4, 2013 11:52 am at 11:52 am |
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
No where near as embarrassed as I would be if Sara Palin or Paul Ryan was our VP.
ConsiderThis, FL
Polar Bear
Bizzare Crazy Uncle Joe! Anyone else embarrassed that this guy is our VP?
March 4, 2013 11:52 am at 11:52 am |
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
No where near as embarrassed as I would be if Sara Palin or Paul Ryan was our VP.
-------
We have a winner in today's "I know you are but what am I" sweepstakes.
Joe should also apologize about giving bad information that it is okay to discharge a weapon with no intended target. Just another political hack that will say and do anything when deemed politically correct, or important to push an agenda. A man who's opinion is not grounded in philosophy or knowledge but what advisers tell him is good for his image.
Americans should follow there instincts and colonize this world
You know what else Joe Bidden was too chicken $h1t3 to do in the late 60's and early 70's? He was too chicken to serve his country in Viet Nam. 5 deferments before he "claimed" asthma as a child. He is worthless as tits on a bore.