In an attack bordering on the hysterical, Joe Biden denounced Donald Trump as a racist during a joint appearance with Kamala Harris in Philadelphia.
The president's frothing-at-the-mouth diatribe against Trump contained little that was true and fed into the exaggerated, anti-Trump narrative about his attitude toward black people.
After claiming that Trump wouldn't be "talking about pardons” if blacks had stormed the Capitol on January 6, Biden let loose a series of attacks that bore little resemblance to the truth.
“This is the same guy who wanted to tear gas you as you peacefully protested George Floyd’s murder. It’s the same guy who still calls the ‘Central Park Five’ guilty, even though they were exonerated. 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.”
Were any "peaceful protesters" tear-gassed during the George Floyd riots? And the idea that Trump personally denied housing applications is absurd on its face. Since when is it an indication of racist thinking when refusing to say "Black Lives Matter"?
The answer is that it doesn't have to be true or accurate. It plays into the victim culture of some black Americans and gets them angry. And angry blacks are pro-Biden blacks.
Biden is bleeding black votes and desperately needs to regain some of that support or he is, for certain, going to lose in November.
Trump's biggest "crime"? “We all remember, Trump is the same guy who unleashed the birtherism lie against Barack,” Biden said.
The birther story was old news by the time Trump got around to pushing it. Despite denials by the Clinton campaign, the story was floating around Clinton circles for months. Hillary never used it in her campaign, but she didn't have to. The whispering campaign damaged Obama anyway.
Trump didn't "unleash" anything. The story was already well-established among the fringes of right-wing politics. Trump simply picked up on it and amplified it.
“Donald Trump is pandering and peddling lies and stereotypes for your vote 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.”
The greatest racial panderer in American history — the greatest player to stereotypes in political history — is accusing Trump of what he himself has used to govern?
The president repeatedly touted what he called his “promises made, promises kept,” such as expanding health-care access, attempting to hold police accountable for abuses and creating a diverse administration, including the “second black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
(The first was a Republican, Colin Powell.)
Biden took sharp aim at Trump, trying to galvanize the mostly black audience.
“Because black Americans voted [in 2020], Kamala and I are president and vice president,” he said to cheers from attendees, who filled only half the designated area of the Girard College gymnasium.
The mix of students — some pretty young kids — teachers and families declined reporters’ questions, with one saying, “I can’t.”
The desperation of the Biden campaign is palpable. It's so rank you can smell it. Fearmongering will, unfortunately, do Biden some good with black voters. What will probably come next is Biden's surrogates and perhaps the president himself warning about a "return to Jim Crow" and perhaps even saying that slavery will make a comeback.
This is only the beginning. And it is truly going to get ugly before it is over.
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