‘It was wrong’: Steyer calls on Biden to ‘disavow’ SC senator in Democratic debate
From the New Hampshire primary debate stage on Friday, Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer called on Joe Biden to publicly disavow a tweet from one of the vice president’s most prominent South Carolina backers.
“Anyone who thinks that racism is a thing of the past is not dealing with reality. In fact, three days ago, one of the leaders of Joe Biden’s South Carolina campaign made racist remarks about someone associated with our campaign,” Steyer said, adding, “And the Legislative Black Caucus went out en masse to stand up for that man and for our campaign.”
Steyer was referring to a drama that unfolded at the S.C. State House on Wednesday, when state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a former S.C. Democratic Party chairman serving his first term in the state Senate, questioned in a tweet why Legislative Black Caucus chairman Rep. Jerry Govan, D-Orangeburg, has been paid more than $43,000 by Steyer, according to the campaign’s most end-of-year filings.
“Mr. Money Bags a.k.a @TomSteyer has paid S.C. State Rep. Jerry Govan almost $50,000 for a month worth of work?” Harpootlian tweeted. “Is he pocketing the dough or redistributing the wealth? cc: Steyer FEC report.”
The tweet incited dueling press conferences at the State House where members of the Legislative Black Caucus accused Harpootlian, who is white, of being a racist. Harpootlian responded, “I’ve been — their term — ‘disrespectful’ to white and black people equally,” he said, a reference to how he’s an unabashed and vocal critics of state and local government when he sees it as incompetent or corrupt.
“Joe, I’m asking you to come with me and the Legislative Black Caucus and disavow Dick Harpootlian and what he had to say,” Steyer said Friday in New Hampshire. “It was wrong and I’m asking you to join us. Be on the right side.”
But one South Carolina senator, a member of the Legislative Black Caucus and a Biden backer, blasted Steyer’s remarks.
“@TomSteyer is simply not telling the truth about activities in South Carolina last week (Wednesday),” state Sen. Marlon Kimpson, D-Charleston, tweeted. “A significant number of members of the SC black caucus and more members of the Congressional black caucus support @JoeBiden.”
Steyer’s remarks toward Biden on the debate stage come as Steyer is trying to challenge Biden ahead of the Feb. 29 Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina, where Steyer has been increasing in the polls, even competing for second place, but has not come close to Biden’s support from black voters, who make up two-thirds of the state party’s primary voting bloc.
Only this year has Steyer broken out of the single digits in polling in South Carolina, rising quickly to compete for second place behind Biden.
Steyer told The State in an interview after the debate Friday that because members of the Legislative Black Caucus believed the tweet was “racist,” so does he.
“I was asking him (Biden) to do the right thing,” Steyer said on disavowing Harpootlian’s tweet. “I am still hoping he will do the right thing.”
On the debate stage Friday, Biden said: “I’ve already spoken to Dick Harpootlian and ... he in fact is ... was ... I believe sorry for what he said. But here’s the deal folks. We’ve got to stop taking the black community for granted. That’s the starting place.”
In response to Harpootlian’s tweet, at least 16 of the 44 members of the Black Caucus took the lobby in between the S.C. House and Senate chambers on Wednesday, calling on Biden to denounce Harpootlian’s tweet.
House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, called on Biden to also disavow Harpootlian’s comments and have no relationship with the freshman senator.
Both attorneys and institutions in Columbia, Harpootlian and Rutherford have butted heads before over the senator’s colorful language and tendency to be brazenly outspoken on issues he stands against. The pair got into a shouting match at a Richland County delegation meeting after Harpootlian complained to staff about their alleged ”pattern of incompetence and failure to do the job,” in which he used an offensive word.
“We ask that Vice President Biden not only disavow those comments but have no relationship whatsoever with Sen. Harpootlian,” Rutherford said on Wednesday. “And we ask that Sen. Harpootlian have nothing to do with his campaign.”
Harpootlian responded: “What I am ... is a state senator who understands that we’ve got a billionaire coming to the state and paying, based on my experience, an extraordinary amount of money to the chairman of the House Black Caucus, who is not a professional and who has not done this on a nationwide basis.”
He added, “The fact of the matter is, simply because I expressed concern about the billionaire paying huge amounts of money to elected officials, I’m all of a sudden racist. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Later that day, the Biden S.C. campaign said Harpootlian does not speak for the campaign.
Harpootlian is not on Biden’s campaign staff but has volunteered, donated money to and helped raise cash for the campaign.
Govan was paid $43,548 for “community building services” over the last few months over the past year through his limited-liability company, The Govan Agency, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Govan told reporters that he is a consultant and a campaign adviser on Steyer’s S.C. campaign.
While the campaign announced his hiring back in October, Steyer’s S.C. spokeswoman told The State on Wednesday that Govan had been working for the campaign since September. The spokeswoman added that the campaign agreed to pay Govan $10,000 a month and to reimburse him on some expenses related to his campaign work.
Another company tied to Govan, Jabezz Investment Corp., also received a payment from Steyer’s campaign in December for $2,100 for “rent.” The campaign rents a building on Saint Paul Street in Orangeburg from Jabezz, which is registered to a property Govan owns, The State was able to confirm using records from the Orangeburg County Assessor and the S.C. Secretary of State’s Office.
That building is Steyer’s Orangeburg campaign headquarters.
After the debate, Steyer defended Govan’s work to The State but deferred to his South Carolina campaign to explain what Govan has done for the campaign.
”I am not the person running” the South Carolina campaign, Steyer said. “My job is to be the candidate to stand up for what is right.”
Steyer returns to South Carolina Sunday and Monday.
Emily Bohatch contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 7, 2020 at 11:14 PM with the headline "‘It was wrong’: Steyer calls on Biden to ‘disavow’ SC senator in Democratic debate."
