Former Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman: Joe Biden had nothing 'to apologize for'

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Lieberman doesn't think Biden had anything to apologize for after remarks on working with segregationists

Former Democrat senator and 2000 vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman reacts to the attacks on the party frontrunner on the campaign trial.

Former Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman said Monday he doesn't believe Joe Biden had anything to apologize for after causing an outcry for touting his working relationships with segregationist senators.

Biden delivered an apology Saturday to a mostly black audience of several hundred in Sumter, S.C.

“Was I wrong a few weeks ago?” Biden asked during the first day of a weekend visit to South Carolina. “Yes, I was. I regret it, and I’m sorry for any of the pain of misconception that caused anybody.”

Responding on "Fox & Friends," Lieberman -- who left the Democratic Party in 2006, when he became an Independent -- said Biden was only trying to make the point that it's important to be able to work with people with whom you disagree.

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"I don't think he said anything wrong. It would have been one thing if he voted as a segregationist, but he never did," said the 2000 vice presidential nominee.

Lieberman, who continued to caucus with the Democrats, said Biden "didn't respond as well as he could have and should have" when forcefully challenged on the comment by Sen. Kamala Harris at a Democratic debate last month.

He added that the Democratic Party must remain center-left to win back the White House, arguing that those types of candidates were successful last November.

"If the Democratic Party becomes – by the choice of a candidate for President or by the policies it follows in Congress – a far-left party or a revolutionary party, instead of a center-left party or just traditional liberal Democratic Party that gets things done, it’s not going to win," he told Steve Doocy, praising House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for taking on the "three or four far-left members of the House Democratic Caucus."

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Pelosi, D-Calif., dismissed the influence of freshmen lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., downplaying their power amid a flurry of media attention.

“All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world. But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got,” Pelosi said of Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.

The four members voted against a House measure to fund humanitarian assistance at the border.