Republicans ‘worse than racists’ for refusal to back Kyiv funding

JOE BIDEN has accused Republicans in Congress of being “worse” than racist US senators of the 1960s because of their refusal to support more funding for Ukraine.

The US president has grown frustrated in recent weeks with Republicans in the House of Representatives blocking an additional $60 billion (£48billion) aid package to help Ukraine fight Russia. Mr Biden, 81, who was a senator before his time in the White House, believes that the intransigence of those Republicans compares unfavourably with segregationists with whom he served in Congress.

At a fundraiser in San Francisco on Wednesday, the president said: “I’ve been a senator since ’72. I’ve served with real racists. I’ve served with Strom Thurmond. But guess what? These guys are worse. These guys do not believe in basic democratic principles.”

Mr Biden said that Thurmond did “terrible things”, but “at least you could work with some of these guys”, adding: “Time and again Republicans show they are the party of chaos and division.”

Thurmond was a South Carolina senator known for his support of racial segregation and staunch opposition of the 1957 and 1964 civil rights acts.

Mr Biden has also claimed that nine heads of state privately told him “you’ve got to win” the presidential election, when his likely opponent will be Donald Trump. He said it was “not because I’m so special”, but because “democracy is at stake if the other guy wins. Nine heads of state have done that with me”.

The president is spending three days in California to raise funds for his re-election campaign.

After Nancy Pelosi, the former house speaker, introduced him at the San Francisco event with a quote from Aristotle about the middle class, Mr Biden joked about being so old he knew the Greek philosopher. Mr Biden has faced criticism from political opponents relating to his fitness to serve a second term because of his age.