Biden draws contrast with ‘pandering’ Trump in appeal to Black voters

President Biden is in Philadelphia on Wednesday trying to drum up support from black voters, drawing a contrast between his first term and that of former President Trump and solidifying support from a key voting bloc that could decide the outcome of November’s election.

Biden and Harris spoke to supporters at Girard College to launch “Black Voters for Biden-Harris,” an initiative to rally support in the black community. Biden credited black voters with putting him in the White House and argued they have the power to do so again in November.

“I showed you who I am, and Trump showed you who he is, and today Donald Trump is spreading lies and stereotypes and pandering to get your vote, not to win for you, but to win for himself. Now, Donald Trump, I have a message for you: Not in our country, not during our term.”

Biden argued that he had kept many of the promises he made during the campaign that would benefit the black community, including investing in historically black colleges and universities, forgiving student loan debt, infrastructure projects to remove lead pipes, legislation to cap the price of insulin and the appointment of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

He contrasted that with Trump’s record and warned that “all of our progress, all of our freedoms, all of our opportunity are at risk.”

“Mr. Trump is trying to get Americans to forget how dark and unsettling things were when he was president,” Biden said at an event at the historic college-preparatory boarding school.

The president mocked President Trump’s handling of the pandemic, noting that the president had suggested disinfectant could be used to treat the coronavirus.

Biden warned that Trump’s attempts to “repeal” Obamacare could put the health care of millions of Americans at risk.

The president criticized President Trump’s sympathetic stance toward the rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and suggested that if it had been Black Americans who clashed with police that day, Trump would not have promised them pardons.

And Biden mocked Trump for frequently boasting that he was the best president for black Americans outside of Abraham Lincoln.

“I think he pumped too much bleach into his brain,” Biden said. “I think it affected his brain.”

Black voters were key to Biden’s success in the 2020 presidential election, when he won 87% of black voters and won key battleground states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

Trump held a rally in the Bronx last week, and his campaign has been bullish on his ability to undermine Biden’s support among voters of color.

“From high gas prices and rising grocery prices to violent crime, Joe Biden has let the Keystone State down,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement. “No matter how many lies Biden tells us, he cannot trick Pennsylvanians into supporting him. His approval rating is rock bottom.”

A New York Times/Siena College/Philadelphia Inquirer poll conducted earlier this month found Biden leading Trump among Black voters 63 percent to 23 percent, a significant drop from his 2020 vote margin.

The Biden-Harris Coalition of Black Voters is one way the campaign is trying to address this issue. The effort will include an eight-figure investment, according to the campaign, and will also include efforts to partner with Black organizations over the summer to increase outreach to Black voters ahead of the election and strengthen voter protections.

He will also work with black-owned media, and through surrogates will travel to battleground states over the weekend, visiting black churches in Atlanta, a block party in Nevada and a barber shop in Michigan.

“It’s because of you that Kamala and I became president and vice president of the United States. That’s no exaggeration,” Biden said Wednesday. “Your vote made Donald Trump a defeated former president, and with your vote in 2024, we’re going to make Donald Trump a loser again.”