President Joe Biden, 81, suggested Wednesday that a reporter was crazy when asked whether he would serve a full second term or hand power to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Biden and Harris were traveling together to Philadelphia on Wednesday to launch ‘Black Voters for Biden-Harris,’ as recent polls showed the Democratic field declining with that group compared to four years ago.
Biden would be 86 at the end of a second term, something voters have expressed concern about as he has also teased a future President Harris in recent weeks.
‘Are you OK? Are you OK?’ Biden asked the reporter, pointing to his head, when asked the question about the second term.
However, when the Democratic duo arrived at Girard College for the campaign rally, it was Harris who received a hero’s welcome, with schoolchildren in the stands cheering as she introduced herself to the vice president.
President Joe Biden (left) pointed to his head (a claim one reporter was crazy) when asked if he planned to serve a full second term or hand over power to Vice President Kamala Harris as he arrived in Philadelphia alongside Rep. Joyce Beatty. (right) Wednesday
Vice President Kamala Harris (R) drew louder cheers when she was announced, especially from schoolchildren attending Girard College, at a campaign rally for Black voters with President Joe Biden (L) on Wednesday in Philadelphia.
“So in 2020 Black voters in Philadelphia and across our country helped President Biden and me win the White House,” Harris said. “And in 2024, with your voice and your power, we will win again.”
“Philadelphia, in Joe Biden we have a fighter, a leader with skill, vision, determination and compassion,” he continued. “A leader who keeps his promises.”
When it was Biden’s turn to speak, he said he came to Philadelphia “to tell the truth.”
“The truth about ‘promises made, promises kept,'” the president said, which was Trump’s campaign slogan for part of the 2020 race.
Biden attacked Trump for getting the initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic wrong.
“Black people were hit harder than anyone else,” the Democrat said. “He took no responsibility for any of it.”
The president mocked Trump again for saying ‘just inject some bleach.’
“The way he’s acting, I think he might have injected himself with a lot of bleach,” Biden said.
Prior to the arrival of the President and Vice President, the 76ers’ Sixers Stixers drum line performed, as did Positive Movement Entertainment’s drum line from ‘Philly Elmo.’
The event was held at Girard College, a K-12 boarding school whose students are predominantly black.
The school began serving white male orphans, but was integrated after a 14-year battle following the landmark Brown v. Board of the Supreme Court.
Biden met with the families of Brown v. board at the White House earlier this month.
William Fulton, known as ‘Philly Elmo,’ dances on stage with Positive Movement Entertainment’s drum line leader during President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ appearance in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
The 76ers Sixers Stixers drum lines perform before President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris appear in Philadelphia on Wednesday to launch Black Voters for Biden-Harris.
Students at Girard College, a K-12 boarding school that has a predominantly black student body, hold signs that say “historically black”
The trip to Pennsylvania follows similar outreach to black voters in the battleground states of Georgia and Michigan earlier this month.
Biden gave a commencement speech at historically all-black Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he told graduating seniors that former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies “do not see you in the future of America.”
The president did not mention Trump or Republicans by name, but it was clear who he was referring to when he mentioned the attack on the US Capitol on January 6.
“Some call the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol carrying Confederate flags patriots,” Biden said. ‘Not in my house.’
“The Black police officers, the Black veterans who were protecting the Capitol were called by another word, as you remember,” Biden continued.
Later that day, in Michigan, in front of the Detroit branch of the NAACP’s Freedom Fund dinner, Biden received gasps from the crowd when he floated an idea.
‘What do you think I would have done on January 6 if black Americans had stormed the Capitol?’ the president asked about Trump.
Trump reiterated Saturday night at the Libertarian National Convention that he planned to pardon those involved in the Jan. 6 riot.
He took it a step further when he raised similar points Wednesday in Philadelphia.
After asking again what Trump would do if the January 6 rioters weren’t mostly a crowd of white men, Biden added: “I don’t think he would be talking about pardons.”
“This is the same guy who wanted to tear gas you while you were peacefully protesting the murder of George Floyd,” Biden said.
“The same guy who still calls the Central Park Five guilty even though they were exonerated,” the president continued. “He’s that landlord who denies housing applications because of the color of your skin.”
“He’s that guy who doesn’t say ‘Black Lives Matter’ and invokes Third Reich neo-Nazi terms,” the president continued.
Biden recalled how Trump ‘unleashed Birtherism, the lie of Birtherism against Barack.’
“And then Trump tells them, I love this, he’s the best president for black people in American history, even more so than Abraham Lincoln,” Biden said, drawing boos.
‘I mean, can you understand that? “Where the hell?” Biden said, interrupting himself. “Like I said, I think he injected too much bleach into his skin…I think it affected his brain.”
The president quoted the late Maya Angelou: “when someone shows you who they are.”
The crowd responded, “Believe them the first time.”
“I’ve shown you who I am, and Trump has shown you who he is, and today Donald Trump is pandering and pedaling lies and stereotypes for your votes so he can win for himself, not for you,” Biden said. “Well, Donald Trump, I have a message for you: not in our house and not on our watch.”
Biden will need to shore up his support among black voters if he plans to win again in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia.
New York Times Poll Polls earlier this month in Pennsylvania showed Biden was only receiving support from 50 percent of black voters in the Keystone State when third-party candidates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., were taken into account.
In that scenario, Trump received 12 percent of support from black voters, while Kennedy received 11 percent in the state.
That number rises to 69 percent in a two-way race against Trump, with the former Republican president receiving 18 percent of the share of black voters.
Exit polls from four years ago in Pennsylvania found that Biden won the votes of 92 percent of black voters statewide.
Aides interviewed by DailyMaill.com said they believed Biden and Harris still had the black vote locked up.