A video from 1974 of Senator Joe Biden has resurfaced where the young lawmaker cautioned not to assume he was not corrupt, and that he was willing to do anything for campaign donations.

On the PBS show The Advocates, interviewer Allard Lowenstein asked Biden, “As the youngest member of the Senate, the one therefore who may expect the longest career there, I wonder if you’d say to us, since it’s clear that you’re not corrupt and you got elected, why should people think that the system produces corrupt results when there you are?”

Biden replied, “I’m not sure you should assume I’m not corrupt, but thank you for that though. The system does produce corruption, and I think implicit in the system is corruption when in fact, whether or not you can run for public office, and it costs a great deal of money to run for the United States Senate, even for a small state like Delaware, you have to go to those people who have money, and they always want something.”

The Delaware senator blamed American people for the corruption in politics. “We were told that we politicians, as the young kids say, rip off the American public. I think the American public in a way rips off we politicians by forcing us to run the way they do,” said Biden.

Biden went on to explain how hard it is to raise $300,000, “I’m a 29-year-old oddball. The only reason I was able to raise the money is that I was able to have a national constituency to run for office, because I was 29.”

“I’m like the token black or the token woman,” Biden said. “I was the token young person.”

“I went to the big guys for the money, 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,’” admitted Biden.

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