Vice President Joe Biden boasts of ‘great relationships’ with Somali cab drivers

Another perplexing remark by Vice President Joe Biden is driving the news today after he made comments on his “great relationship” with Somali cab drivers.

At the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism on Tuesday, Biden was discussing areas where East African immigrants have settled in the United States, including the “very identifiable” Somali community in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.

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Wilmington’s Somali population is likely quite small — in 2012, the U.S. Census Bureau found that 48,000 people in Philadelphia, Camden and Wilmington were born in an African country.

“If you ever come to the train station with me you’ll notice that I have great relationships with them because there’s an awful lot of them driving cabs and are friends of mine, for real,” Biden said.

The Somali-American community has come under close scrutiny in recent years as the Somali government has struggled to fight back against multiple terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda. In November 2014, two Somali-American men in Minnesota were charged with providing support for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

 

Biden’s comments come on the first day of the three-day summit, for which the U.S. is hosting leaders from about 60 countries in the nation’s capital. The summit is aimed at combating the spread of violent extremism in the wake of ISIL’s rapid rise.

Biden delivered the opening remarks for the summit on Tuesday morning.

Source: politico.com