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Bizarre Flashback Video: Biden Says He’s ‘Like The Token Black Or The Token Woman’

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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Former Vice President Joe Biden once argued that he was “like the token black or the token woman” in terms of getting funding from donors.

WATCH:

Biden, then just two years into his first term as a Delaware Senator, claimed that efforts to fundraise in the traditional manner had not worked for him.

During a 1974 appearance on “The Advocates,” a PBS weekly program, Biden likened typical political fundraising efforts to prostitution. Calling it the “most degrading experience in the world,” Biden argued that the current system — which does not appear to have changed much — forced candidates to seek out large donors. And in return for backing candidates, those donors “always want something.”

“You run the risk of deciding whether or not you’re going to prostitute yourself to give the answer you know they want to hear in order to get funded to run for that office,” Biden explained, admitting that he had been ready to go to such lengths to make sure that his campaign would be funded.

“I was ready to prostitute myself in the manner in which I talk about it, but what happened was they said, ‘Come back when you’re 40, son,'” Biden added. (RELATED: Stacey Abrams Puts Biden VP Rumors To Bed With Just 8 Words)

His age, he said, was what made him able to raise enough small donations to bridge the gap. “I’m a 29-year-old oddball … I’m like the token black or the token woman,” Biden said. “I was the token young person.”

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