During a campaign event in Hanover, New Hampshire, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden asked the crowd to imagine what the United States would have looked like had former President Barack Obama been assassinated.
According to a report from The New York Times , during the town hall-like event about healthcare on Friday, the former vice president “grew most animated” while discussing his own political awakening in the late 1960s, and early 1970s.
The two events that shaped Biden’s worldview, according to him, were the assassinations of his political heroes, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
“My senior semester they were both shot and killed,” the White House hopeful said, before telling the crowd of several hundred supporters to imagine what the United States would have looked like had Barack Obama been assassinated.
“Imagine what would have happened if, God forbid, Barack Obama had been assassinated after becoming the de facto nominee. What would have happened in America?”
Biden’s remarks echo former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s controversial statements. In 2008, while running for the Democratic presidential nomination against Obama, Clinton defended staying longer in the race by referencing the assassination of President Kennedy.
“We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California,” Clinton said.
As the NYT notes, during his speech, Biden repeatedly drew comparisons between the events of the late 1960s and early 1970s and what is happening in the United States today, and this is not the first time for him to draw an analogy between the killings of 1968 and a hypothetical Obama assassination.
Joe Biden promised Obama “would never have to worry” about former VP running for president https://t.co/kPBj5oXvK9
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) August 20, 2019
Biden has made attempts to use Obama’s popularity among Democratic voters to his advantage, frequently sharing stories about working with the former vice president when pitching himself to potential voters. Obama is yet to return the favor, however, and he has not endorsed any of the candidates in the race.
As The Inquisitr reported, the former president allegedly attempted to talk Biden out of running for president, urging him earlier this year to reconsider the decision. But, adamant to defeat Donald Trump, Biden officially launched his 2020 campaign in April, and members of his campaign have since held meetings with the former president, who reportedly expressed criticism about their efforts pertaining to reaching out to young voters.
By far the most popular White House hopeful among young Americans is Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, polls have consistently shown. For instance, an April Harvard University’s Institute of Politics survey found that 31 percent of likely voters between 18- and 29-years-old support Sanders, according to The Hill .
