Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron Criticizes Biden’s Comments on Race

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron stands on stage in an empty Mellon Auditorium while addressing the Republican National Convention in Washington on Aug. 25, 2020. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron—the first African American elected to a standalone office in the state’s history—refuted statements made by Democratic nominee Joe Biden on black voters during night two of the Republican national convention (RNC).

Cameron, who is also the first Republican elected to the state’s Attorney General’s office since 1948, sought to cast Biden as a “captive to the radical left” which he said was “committed to cancel culture and the destruction of public discourse.”

He castigated the Democratic Party’s platform for pushing the notion that “your skin color must dictate your politics.”

“I think often about my ancestors who struggled for freedom,” he said on Tuesday. “And as I think of those giants and their broad shoulders, I also think about Joe Biden, who says, if you aren’t voting for me, ‘you ain’t black.’”

Cameron also made reference to Biden’s previous comments where he said there was no diversity of thought in the Black community. Biden later walked back his comments saying that he did “not mean to suggest the African American community is a monolith.”

Seen as a rising star in the Republican party, Cameron previously worked as legal counsel to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). At one point in his remarks, the 34-year-old directly addressed Biden.

“Mr. Vice President look at me, I am Black. We are not all the same, sir. I am not in chains,” he said. “My mind is my own. And you can’t tell me how to vote because of the color of my skin.”

Cameron often went after Biden and his history in politics, describing him as a “backwards thinker in a world craving forward-looking leadership” and that there was no wisdom in the Democrat nominee’s plans, “just a trail of discredited ideas and offensive statements.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden accepts the Democratic presidential nomination during a speech delivered for the largely virtual 2020 Democratic National Convention from the Chase Center in Wilmington, Del., on Aug. 20, 2020. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cameron’s speech comes after Democrats spent much of their national convention last week trying to convince independent and even lifelong Republican voters that nominee Joe Biden would be an acceptable choice. The Democratic National Convention also featured a number of people who voted for President Donald Trump in 2016 but have since switched to supporting Biden.

The attorney general also criticized the violent riots happening in some cities across the United States. At the same time, he said he supports peaceful protestors.

“But even as anarchists mindlessly tear up American cities while attacking police and innocent bystanders, we Republicans do recognize those who work in good faith towards peace, justice, and equality,” Cameron said.

On night two of the RNC convention, small business owners were given a key voice. Among them, a lobster fisherman, a milk farmer, and a metal fabricator. The business owners collectively lauded Trump’s economic policies, including tax cuts and deregulation.

Jason Joyce, and an eighth-generation lobster fisherman from Maine, said he didn’t support Trump during the 2016 election, but has since changed his mind after the president followed through on his campaign promises. He lamented an Obama-Biden administration move to order thousands of miles of ocean off-limits to commercial fishermen.

“President Trump reversed that decision, reinstating the rules that allow stakeholder input, and he supports a process that seeks and respects fishermen’s views,” Joyce said.

Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report.