President Joe Biden, 81, suggested a reporter was crazy Wednesday when asked if he would serve a full second term or turn over power to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Biden and Harris were traveling to Philadelphia together Wednesday to launch ‘Black Voters for Biden-Harris,’ as recent polling showed the Democratic ticket sagging with that group compared to four years ago.
Biden would be 86 at the end of a second term, something that voters have expressed concerns about, as he’s also teased in recent weeks a future President Harris.
‘Are you OK? Are you alright?’ Biden asked the reporter, pointing to his head, when asked the second term question.
However when the Democratic duo arrived at Girard College for the campaign rally, it was Harris who received a heroes’ welcome, with the schoolchildren in the stands screaming when the vice president was introduced.
President Joe Biden (left) pointed to his head – an assertion that a reporter was nuts – when asked if he planned to serve a whole second term or would hand power over to Vice President Kamala Harris as he arrived in Philadelphia alongside Rep. Joyce Beatty (right) Wednesday
Vice President Kamala Harris (right) got bigger screams when she was announced – especially from the schoolchildren who attended Girard College – at a campaign rally for black voters with President Joe Biden (left) Wednesday in Philadelphia
‘So in 2020 black voters in Philadelphia and across our nation 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,’ she continued. ‘A leader who keeps his promises.’
When it was Biden’s turn to speak, he said he came to Philadelphia ‘to speak the truth.’
‘The truth about “promises made, promises kept,”‘ the president said – which was Trump’s campaign motto for part of the 2020 race.
Biden savaged Trump for bungling the initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘Black folks were hit harder than anyone else,’ the Democrat said. ‘He took responsibility for none of it.’
The president again mocked Trump for saying ‘just inject a little bleach.’
‘The way he’s acting I think he might have injected a lot of bleach in himself,’ Biden said.
Prior to the president and vice president’s arrival the 76ers’ Sixers Stixers drum line performed, as did ‘Philly Elmo’ Positive Movement Entertainment drum line.
The event was held at Girard College, a K through 12 boarding school whose students are predominantly black.
The school started out as serving white, male orphans, but was integrated after a 14-year battle after the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board decision.
Biden met with Brown v. Board families at the White House earlier this month.
William Fulton, known as the ‘Philly Elmo’ dances onstage with the Positive Movement Entertainment drum line head of President Joe Biden’s and Vice President Kamala Harris’ appearance in Philadelphia Wednesday
The 76ers’ Sixers Stixers drum lines performs ahead of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ appearance in Philadelphia Wednesday to launch Black Voters for Biden-Harris
Students from Girard College a K-12 boarding school that has a predominantly black student body hold up signs that read ‘historically black’
The trip to Pennsylvania follows similar outreach to black voters in the battleground states of Georgia and Michigan earlier this month.
Biden delivered a commencement address at the historically black all-male Morehouse College in Atlanta where he told graduating seniors that former President Donald Trump and his GOP allies ‘don’t see you in the future of America.’
The president didn’t use Trump or the Republicans by name but it was clear who he was talking about when he brought up the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack.
‘Insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol with Confederate flags are called patriots by some,’ Biden said. ‘Not in my house.’
‘Black police officers, black veterans, protecting the Capitol were called another word as you recall,’ Biden continued.
Later that day, in Michigan in front of the NAACP Detroit Branch Freedom Fund dinner, Biden received gasps from the crowd when he floated an idea.
‘What do you think he 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 January 6 riot.
He went a step further when making similar points in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
After again asking what Trump would do if the January 6 rioters weren’t mostly a crowd of white men, Biden added, ‘I don’t think he’d be talking about pardons.’
‘He’s the same guy who wanted to teargas you as you peacefully protested George Floyd’s murder,’ 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 won’t say “Black Lives Matter” and invokes neo-Nazi Third Reich terms,’ the president went on.
Biden recalled how Trump ‘unleashed Birtherism, the Birtherism lie against Barack.’
‘And then Trump tells you – I love this one – he says he’s the greatest president for black people in the history of America, including more than Abraham Lincoln,’ Biden said, garnering boos.
‘I mean, can you fathom that? Where in the hell,’ Biden said trailing off. ‘Like I said I think he injected too much of that bleach in his skin … I think it effected his brain.’
The president quoted the late Maya Angelou: ‘when someone shows you who they are.’
The crowd responded back, ‘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 bolster his support among black voters if he plans to again win Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia.
New York Times polling from earlier this month in Pennsylvania showed that Biden was only receiving the support from 50 percent of black voters in the Keystone State when third-party candidates including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were factored in.
In that scenario, Trump received 12 percent of black voter support, while Kennedy received 11 percent in the state.
That number pops up to 69 percent in a two-way race against Trump, with the former Republican president receiving 18 percent of the black voter share.
Exit polling from four years ago in Pennsylvania found that Biden won the votes of 92 percent of black voters across the state.
Attendees interviewed by DailyMaill.com said they believed that Biden and Harris still had a lock on the black vote.
