During his speech in Pennsylvania on Monday, President Joe Biden took a moment to recount a grim tale about his great-grandfather being falsely accused of murder—a story he insisted was “not a joke” to the Pittsburgh rally.
For about 90 seconds, the crowd of supporters with signs stood in silence as the 81-year-old president narrated an anecdote from the 1906 election when his great-grandfather Edward Francis Blewitt ran for statewide office. Biden noted that Blewitt was “only the second Catholic” to achieve such a milestone. According to Biden, his ancestor was accused of being a “Molly Maguire”—a term used at the time for Irishmen allegedly involved in violent acts against abusive coal mine foremen. The story was part of Biden’s Labor Day speech aimed at appealing to steelworkers in the battleground state, who were key voters for Kamala Harris.
“A Molly Maguire back in the – in the old days, when we Irish and the Catholic and the Poles and others that were Catholic – when they came to the United States of America in the beginning of the 1840s, late 1840s, made their way down into Pennsylvania,” Biden rambled. “A lot of them – and there’s, there’s a tier in the coal mines. Those guys who got there last ended up being the last people in the coal mines. But a lot of the English owned the coal mines,” Biden recalled as audience members glanced to one another, hoping for a point to the story. “And what they did was, they’d really beat the hell out of the, uh, the mostly Catholic population that was in the mines. Not a joke. Not a joke.”
According to Biden, his great-grandfather was a principled politician advocating for the rights of immigrant laborers during a time of widespread exploitation. This advocacy triggered a smear campaign by mine owners who sought to undermine Blewitt’s efforts to support the Irish workers and prevent him from succeeding in the Pennsylvania State Senate. “But there was a group called the Molly Maguires, and the Molly Maguires, they’d find out the foreman who was taking advantage of an individual, and they’d literally kill him,” he went on, prompting gasps from the audience. “Not a joke,” he repeated, “and they’d bring his body up and put his body on the doorstep of his family. Kind of crude. But I’ve gotta admit: They accused my great-grandfather of being a Molly – he wasn’t.”
Blewitt ultimately won the 1906 election and served in the Senate’s 22nd district from 1907 to 1910. A coal mine owner in Montana, Blewitt married Mary Ellen Stanton in 1879 and fathered four sons, including Patrick, who was President Biden’s grandfather. Monday’s speech marked the first time Biden has publicly referenced his great-grandfather’s murder accusations.
WATCH:
Critics have been pointing out for weeks that handlers for Harris appear to have adopted Biden’s 2020 campaign strategy of hiding out and not speaking to reporters. Harris has not held a formal press conference for 14 days since becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee as of Sunday.
Harris announced on July 22 that she had secured the Democratic nomination, with commitments from the majority of nearly 4,000 delegates for the upcoming Democratic National Convention. Since then, she has been actively campaigning, speaking at various events, and engaging with reporters, but she has yet to hold a formal press conference or a comprehensive interview in the 13 days following her announcement, Fox News reported.
Harris also missed the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago, where former President Trump made headlines on Wednesday with a contentious Q&A session. On Thursday, she made a brief appearance at Joint Base Andrews, where she and President Biden welcomed Americans freed from Russia in a major prisoner swap, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. But those comments were widely panned as being more of the same kind of “word salad” Americans are used to hearing from Harris.
“This is just an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy and understands the strength that rests in understanding the significance of diplomacy and strengthening alliances,” Harris said at the time. “This is an incredible day.”
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.