'The Five' blasts Biden's attack on Senate filibuster
'The Five' panel reacts to President Biden's Georgia remarks over election changes.
Greg Gutfeld criticized President Joe Biden for his comments in Georgia about Democrats' election law Tuesday on "The Five," saying that moderate Joe Biden is "dead."
Biden warned of a stark dichotomy between the proponents and opponents of the Democrats' election law overhaul bill dubbed the "John Lewis Voting Rights Act," asking a crowd in Atlanta on Tuesday whether they wanted to be "on the side of Dr. King or [former Alabama Democratic Gov.] George Wallace."
Wallace notably proclaimed in his 1963 gubernatorial inauguration address, "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."
Gutfeld pointed out that Wallace, a 1972 presidential candidate, was a prominent Democrat during Biden's early years in the U.S. Senate.
"It’s just great when he mentions George Wallace because, whose side was George Wallace on? He was on Joe Biden's – Joe Biden bragged about the fact George Wallace liked Joe Biden," Gutfeld recalled.
In a tweet earlier Tuesday, House Republicans pointed to a 1987 report discussing Biden's past comments on Wallace. Biden unsuccessfully sought the 1988 Democratic nomination for president.
"Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware tells Southerners that the lower half of his state is culturally part of Dixie. He reminds them that former Alabama Gov. George Wallace praised him as one of the outstanding young politicians of America," read the report in the Detroit Free Press.
"I don't know why all the activists are upset about Joe because ‘Moderate Joe’ is dead. He’s buried," Gutfeld said.
"What you saw there [in Georgia on Tuesday] was a guy who wants to federalize elections. He's splitting the country in half with divisive, earsplitting rhetoric like it dementia-riddled transient shouting at clouds."
Alabama Gov. George Corley Wallace Jr. promises "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" during his 1963 inaugural address. (Bettmann/ Contributor/Getty Images)
The election law overhaul, named for the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., and introduced by Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., has been somewhat stymied in the Senate as fellow Democrat Joe Manchin III of West Virginia remains opposed to getting rid of the 60-vote filibuster rule.
Tuesday's event in Georgia was not the first time Biden contrasted himself with Wallace. During the 2020 presidential campaign, then candidate-Biden at times compared Republican then-President Donald Trump to the late Alabama Democrat:
During a 2019 California fundraiser, Biden said Trump is "more George Wallace than George Washington."
Alabama Governor George Wallace standing defiantly at a door while being confronted by Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach while attempting to block integration at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, in this June 11, 1963 photograph courtesy of the Library of Congress. REUTERS/Library of Congress/Handout via Reuters
Dagen McDowell expounded upon Gutfeld's remarks, further discussing Biden's penchant for bringing up Wallace.
"And as Greg pointed out, he was a Democrat – but Biden once bragged about Wallace paying him a compliment," said McDowell.
"Joe Biden gave a eulogy a little more than a decade ago for a former exalted cyclops of the Klan – Robert Byrd," McDowell recalled, referring to the former West Virginia Democratic senator who died in 2010 at age 92.
"So, he constantly reinforces the fact that he is old and used to be friends with racists and segregationists," she concluded.
Wallace died in 1998 at age 79.