Edison diss & ‘scripts’ at Joe’s Kenosha talk
Joe Biden’s town-hall event in Kenosha, Wis., on Thursday was marred by a number of eyebrowraising incidents, including him claiming that the light bulb was not invented by Thomas Edison and one questioner revealing that she had been “told to go off ” a script for her remarks.
The Democratic presidential nominee said during the community event at Grace Lutheran Church that a black man invented the light bulb — and “not a white guy named Edison.”
Biden, 77, was speaking to residents at the church following a private 90-minute sit-down in Milwaukee with the family of Jacob Blake, the black man whose shooting by a Kenosha police officer has ignited unrest in the city. Blake joined the meeting by phone, said attorney Ben Crump.
“I cannot guarantee everything gets solved in four years, but I guarantee you one thing: It will be a whole heck of a lot better,” Biden told the church audience of his potential presidency. “We will move a lot further down the road.”
Some accused Biden of trying to rewrite history with his jab at the American inventor.
Edison is credited with patenting the first commercially successful incandescent light bulb in 1879, using a paper filament that burned out quickly.
Three years later, Lewis Howard Latimer, a black inventor who worked as one of Edison’s researchers, patented a light bulb using a carbon filament, which was much more durable, according to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology profile.
At another point, while talking about law enforcement, Biden said that while a “significant portion” of cops are “decent people,” there are “a lot of bad folks” in every organization — before cutting himself off to introduce his wife.
“And so we gotta give a chance to change things, and we can,” Biden said. “There is not a single solitary reason in the world why, as I said, we shouldn’t be in a position that everybody — and that’s my wife, Jill. Hey, Jilly . . . I’m Jill’s husband, actually.”
Biden also used a questionable choice of words when talking about his tax plans. He promised not to raise rates on anyone making less than $400,000, but stopped short of divulging specifics, saying, “They’ll shoot me.”
Critics assailed the turn of phrase as insensitive and inappropriate in the aftermath of Blake’s Aug. 23 shooting.
Participants at the event, meanwhile, appeared to have been screened for the town hall and given a script, according to one woman’s remarks.
“My name is Portia Bennett. I’m just going to be honest, Mr. Biden, I was told to go off this paper, but I can’t,” the woman said.
“You need the truth, and I’m part of the truth. I was born here, raised here. I have to give you the truth of the people.”