MSNBC host Al Sharpton said on “Morning Joe” Friday that it was “offensive” that President Joe Biden only asked questions of white reporters during his NATO summit press conference, leaving black voters out of the conversation while expecting them to support him.
“There’s a deep concern, and I think you’re all hearing it, that Joe Biden could lose the entire Democratic Party,” co-host Willie Geist said.
“I hear those voices,” Sharpton said. “But at the same time, I’m also hearing that we don’t need to be in such a hurry, because if it’s not Biden, how do we transition without putting us in a more dangerous position? Yesterday, I was in Milwaukee to speak at a vigil for a black man who was killed by a hotel security guard. People who are making a big fuss about that told me that we can’t win Wisconsin without Milwaukee and the black vote. They said, we have questions about Biden’s age, but where are we going to go? Are they going to undermine Kamala Harris? I think if we’re talking about a coalition, we can’t forget the fundamental roots of that coalition, black, Latino, working people. We can’t take for granted that some people are just going to go where they want to go and they’re going to throw away the people who were with us.”
He continued, “I watched the press conference last night and wondered where the black reporters were. Are black voters supposed to stand in line while all you see are white people asking Biden questions? I think a lot of people take that for granted. You’ll notice that only one person in the Congressional Black Caucus probably said Biden should step aside.”
“Let’s not forget,” Sharpton concluded, “it was the resistance of black voters and the support of Hispanic voters that got Biden the nomination. I think it’s insulting and elitist for us to leave out of that discussion.”
“The White House decided yesterday which reporters would be asked questions,” Geist said.
“That’s exactly who I was talking to,” Sharpton said.
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