Biden sparks anger for claiming today’s Republicans are ‘worse’ than the SEGREGATIONISTS he served with in Senate: Speaker Mike Johnson slams Joe for ‘playing the race card’ because he’s ‘desperate in the polls’

Speaker Mike Johnson attacked President Biden for claiming that current Republicans in Congress are worse than the racist segregationists he served with in the Senate.

At a fundraiser Wednesday night in California, Biden told the crowd, “I’ve been a senator since ’72. I’ve served with real racists. I served with Strom Thurmond. I served with all these guys who set terrible records in racing. But guess what? These guys are even worse. These guys don’t believe in basic democratic principles.’

“Outrageous,” Johnson said of the comments about X.

“The least popular president seeking re-election is now so desperate and so underwater in the polls that he is playing the race card from below.”

Biden was forced to apologize during his 2020 campaign as he fondly reminisced about working with Southern segregationists.

He gave a glowing eulogy to Thurmond of South Carolina, who died in 2003 at age 100 and spent much of his career fiercely opposing racial integration.

At a fundraiser Wednesday night in California, Biden told the crowd, “I’ve been a senator since ’72. I’ve served with real racists. I served with Strom Thurmond. I served with all these guys who set terrible records in racing. But guess what? These guys are worse’

However, Biden did not apologize for that eulogy on Wednesday.

‘I told the truth. By the time Strom left, he did terrible things,” the president said, according to a pool report. “But by the time he left, he had more African Americans on his staff than any other member of Congress. He voted to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act.”

‘I don’t make him more than he was. But my point is at least you could work with some of these guys,” Biden continued. “Time and time again, Republicans have shown that they are the party of chaos and division.”

On the campaign trail in 2020, Biden recalled the “civility” in the Senate by appealing to two segregationists, James O. Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia, both Democrats.

Of Eastland, he said: “He never called me ‘boy’, he always called me ‘son’.”

He described Talmadge as “one of the meanest guys I’ve ever known, you go on the list of all these guys.”

“Well, guess what?” Biden continued. “At least there was some civility. We’ve done things. We disagreed on many things. We’ve done things. We’ve got it ready. But today you look at the other side and you are the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don’t talk to each other anymore.’

Weeks later, Biden walked back those comments.

“Was I wrong a few weeks ago to somehow give the impression to people that I was praising the men I successfully opposed time and time again? Yes I was. I regret it. I am sorry for the pain and misunderstanding I have caused anyone.”

Biden’s latest comments come as Congress remains deadlocked over everything from mandatory spending legislation to aid to Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific and immigration reform.

The Senate last week passed a foreign aid package that Johnson has suggested is dead on arrival in the House of Representatives. Johnson is now insisting he must sit down with Biden to discuss attaching border security provisions to the relief bill — while Biden is demanding he put the Senate bill up for a vote.

Congress is also fast approaching a new deadline to pass spending legislation to fund the government in the 2024 fiscal year, after passing three emergency bills to push back the deadline. Funding for twelve government agencies will expire on a split timeline of March 1-8.