DETROIT — Speaking to a sold-out crowd Sunday night, President Joe Biden addressed thousands of attendees at the dinner of the largest branch of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, outlining the steps his administration has taken to help Detroit and giving credit to Black voters for his election in 2020.
And he was especially careful about criticizing former President Donald Trump, who he is expected to face in a rematch this fall.
“The nation…needs you all,” Biden said. “Because of your vote, it is the only reason I am here as president of the United States… You are the reason Donald Trump is the defeated former president and you are the reason Donald Trump will be a loser. ” again.”
Biden delivered the keynote address at the annual Fight for Freedom Fund dinner of the Detroit branch of the NAACP, held at Huntington Place in Detroit, and received a lifetime achievement award from the group.
Directly addressing concerns some have raised about Biden’s age — he is 81 — he opened the 19-minute speech by saying, “I don’t feel tired, I feel inspired.” He then launched his administration’s efforts to improve health care for black people, eliminate the racial wealth gap, remove lead water pipes, and appoint black judges to the federal court.
He also said that if re-elected, he would push for additional civil rights actions, including legislation to improve the enforcement of voting rights.
Concluding his speech, Biden said that the US has not achieved its founding ideal of equality, but that is no reason to stop trying. “We’ve never quite risen to it, but we’ve also never quite moved away from it,” he said. “But Trump will.”
In a speech that began at 8 p.m., Biden also called Trump “crazy,” saying he wants to roll back safety regulations, cut taxes for the rich and corporations and cut health care. He also called Trump “deranged,” saying Trump wants to pardon supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress met to certify Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021, and asking the crowd what they thought Trump would have done if black voters had done so. .
“Trump is not running to lead America. He’s running for revenge,” Biden said.
Although Biden has made preserving democracy a key theme of his campaign, Trump has repeatedly criticized Biden’s handling of the economy. But Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — co-chair of Biden’s re-election campaign — tried to undermine Trump’s attack. “Our economy and people’s wages are growing,” Whitmer said before Biden took the stage.
Biden went on to specify the ways in which his policies have specifically improved the economic well-being of Black Americans. Among the policies Biden has championed, he touted efforts to reduce the racial wealth gap, saying it had reached a historic low on his watch. On the one hand, this is true. But looking at the dollar amounts separating the wealth of black and white Americans, the gap has widened, according to a study analysis by fact-checking news organization PolitiFact.
The annual event “is the largest sit-down dinner of its kind in the world,” according to the chapter’s website, and has attracted a who’s who of Michigan’s black leaders, as well as Whitmer, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and the two Democratic senators from Michigan. USA of Michigan.
It comes at a time when the Democratic president is trying to shore up support among black voters and push back against the narrative that his campaign is struggling in swing states, including Michigan. When he took the stage, the crowd chanted “Four more years!”
The last time a Democratic presidential candidate spoke at the event was in 2016, when Hillary Clinton addressed clients before securing his party’s nomination that year. Experts attributed his narrow defeat to Trump in Michigan in part to low voter turnout in Detroit.
On Sunday, patrons once again took their seats in a vast convention hall, some wearing evening gowns and tuxedos. Outside, they passed pro-Palestinian protesters protesting Biden’s policies in Gaza. But once inside, they saw a reminder of other parts of Biden’s first-term legacy. A life-size cardboard cutout of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson greeted them with the caption “Black Women Supreme.” By choosing Jackson, Biden became the first president to nominate a Black woman to the court.
Biden’s trip to Detroit marked his first visit to the city this election year to campaign. Earlier in the day, Biden gave a commencement address at Morehouse College, a historically black liberal arts college for men in Atlanta. Although Biden has repeatedly described the upcoming presidential election as a battle to preserve American democracy, he appeared to recognize that his campaign message might not resonate with the black male audience he was addressing.
“It’s natural to wonder if the democracy you hear about really works for you,” Biden told the graduates. “What is democracy if black men are being killed in the streets? What is democracy if a trail of broken promises still leaves black communities behind?
Biden’s appearance in Detroit comes later Vice President Kamala Harris visited the city earlier this month to praise the government’s efforts to end racial economic disparities. Reverend Wendell Anthony — president of the Detroit branch of the NAACP — described the dinner as another effective way to engage and motivate voters.
Anthony indicated that the stakes in the upcoming election could not be higher during a pre-dinner press conference. “Our very freedom is at stake,” he said. Asked about national polls that show Biden losing ground among black voters — especially black men — Anthony said he expects that as November approaches, support for the president’s re-election will grow. “You know, it’s like the Lord always comes. It doesn’t come when you want it to, but it always comes at the right time,” he said.
While the NAACP dinner drew many Biden supporters, not everyone was sure what they would do this fall. La Shumbra Singleton, 49, of Pontiac, who attended the dinner said she has not yet decided whether she will vote for Biden. “It’s the same old thing,” she said of this year’s election cycle. Asked if she is frustrated about facing another rematch between Biden and Trump, she said: “Oh my God, yes.” But she said seeing Biden “figure out a better way to deal with the foreign policy issues with Palestine and Hamas” would help Biden win her vote. She has said she wants to see a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. She also wants to see Biden talk more about student loan debt.
Meanwhile, Harold Hill, 66, of Southfield — who works in pharmaceutical sales — said he plans to vote for Biden. He said the president’s appearance at the dinner was a sign that he is not taking Detroit — nor the battleground state of Michigan — for granted. But Biden faces the challenge of attracting black voters to ensure his re-election, Hill said. “They’re not motivated like they were with President Obama. They’re not, because he’s boring,” Hill said of Biden. “Black people don’t like boring people. I hate to say it, but they don’t.”
As Biden faces an almost certain rematch against Trump this fall, his campaign has made reaching Black voters in Detroit and Michigan — a key swing state — a focus of his reelection campaign. Black turnout in Detroit — one of the largest majority-black cities in the country — and other areas where black voters are concentrated could influence elections this fall.
In 2016, Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to win Michigan since 1988. But Biden defeated Trump in the state in 2020. Polls to have showing Biden trails Trump in Michigan in a head-to-head matchup.
Contact Clara Hendrickson at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on X, formerly called Twitter, @clarajanehen.
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This article originally appeared in the Detroit Free Press: At the NAACP dinner in Detroit, Biden says he needs black voters and attacks Trump
