This should give you an idea of how radically the Democratic party has changed in just a little over a decade.
Joe Biden is running to the left to appease the base, but back in 2006, when he was preparing for his 2008 run, he sounded very different, especially on immigration.
The Washington Free Beacon reports:
Flashback: Biden Opposed Amnesty, Called for Immigrants to Speak English
In an interview with NBC’s Chris Matthews in 2006, then-senator Biden voiced his support for the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act, sponsored by Sens. Ted Kennedy and John McCain. When asked by Matthews if there was a Democratic Party position which “accommodates the need to stop illegal entry, punish people who hire people with cheap wages illegally, and also gives hope to people who live here illegally,” Biden said that he believed the McCain-Kennedy Bill would achieve those ends.
Matthews then asked, “Can you scare an employer in this country … into not hiring an illegal because the punishment’s so high that if you get caught, it’s a huge embarrassment to your family, and you may just get hit with a fine that’ll kill you?”
In response, Biden said, “You can, and that’s what we should do. I think we should do that.”
Biden affirmed that the bill’s provisions to provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants was not amnesty.
“This isn’t amnesty,” Biden said. “They’re required to take 11 years work, they pay a fine, they gotta learn to speak English, they gotta pass tests.”
The senator then emphasized the importance of forcing illegal immigrants to learn English. “I can’t think of a country that has two languages as their accepted languages that is doing all that well, including Switzerland and … Canada.”
Watch the video:
How is Biden going to explain this to the left?
Biden has other problems, too. The crowds at his appearances are very underwhelming.
Politico reports:
Joe Biden is the front-runner by every measure — except big crowds
He’s dominating in the polls, his fundraising is going gangbusters and he’s showing broad support from key political players in the early presidential states.
So where are the big energetic crowds, the lines around the block to get into Joe Biden’s events?
The question is no small matter in a party still recovering from a bitter 2016 defeat — a loss marked by a lack of enthusiasm for an establishment nominee in several critical states.
Attendance at the former vice president’s launch rally paled next to some of his rivals. In his first Iowa visit, he didn’t match the crowds that greeted Elizabeth Warren or even the less well-known Pete Buttigieg in their initial visits. So far, he’s kept his events to smaller venues where there’s little danger of empty seats.
Of course, there’s no guarantee he will be the Dem nominee.
Their convention is still over a year away.
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