Monday on MSNBC, 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said it should not have been “so hard’ for her rival for the Democratic nomination, former Vice President Joe Biden to apologize for his comments about working with segregationist senators.

Host Kasie Hunt asked, “Speaking of taking on other Democrats standing up to other Democrats — Joe Biden apologized for praising his work with segregationists when he was down in South Carolina over the weekend. And he also had some interesting comments about how he would like people to look at his past record.”

She added, “He wants to talk about today, he says. Do you think what happened 40 years ago in somebody’s record is fair game?”

Gillibrand said, “Look, I don’t think it should be so hard to apologize. What we want out of a presidential candidate somebody who has the humility to recognize when they’re wrong and the courage to leave from a new position and bring people together around it. Certainly, that’s who I’ve been. And I certainly who President Trump is not. President Trump is somebody who would never admit he’s wrong because he’s so self-centered and so arrogant. He would never lead from a new position because he listened to his constituents first. We need leaders who have the strength of character and humility to move forward and to actually govern, but I think it’s important to talk about issues of race and institutional racism. I have really direct forms to deal with the lack of economic opportunity for black-owned businesses, and minority-owned businesses in America by having more funding. It’s why I have a robust agenda for postal banking as well as fixing the criminal justice system. I have a really comprehensive approach on decriminalizing marijuana and getting rid of cash bail systems.”

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