Biden tells black graduates Republicans 'don't see you in the future of America' in fiery speech slamming right-wing 'extremists'
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
President Joe Biden told black graduates Sunday that former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies 'don't see you in the future of America' in a fiery takedown on race.
The president didn't use Trump or the GOP 's name as he addressed graduating seniors from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, but it was clear who he was talking about as he brought up January 6 amid their commencement ceremony.
'Insurrectionists who stormed the capitol with Confederate flags are called patriots by some,' Biden told the seniors, graduating from the historically black, all-male institution. 'Not in my house.'
Trump often refers to his supporters who ransacked the Capitol Building by that term.
'Black police officers, black veterans, protecting the Capitol were called another word as you recall,' Biden continued.
The president added that 'extremists close the doors of opportunity, strike down affirmative action, attack the values of diversity, equality and inclusion.'
'They don't see you in the future of America, but they're wrong,' Biden said. 'We know black history is American history. We know black men are going to lead us into the future.'
I never thought I would be president at a time when tehre's a national effort to ban books. Not to right history but to erase history,' an aghast Biden also said.
The president's speech wavered between the political and the personal as he talked about the 'Saturdays' in the Christian faith, when Jesus' disciples had given up hope, a day before Christ's resurrection.
Biden talked of his own 'Saturdays' - the loss of his first wife and baby daughter and later his adult son Beau.
He segued that into current events that are tests of faith - the assault on democracy and war in Gaza.
Biden was given applause by most of the graduating class throughout his address, with just one member of the faculty obviously protesting his appearance over the war.
As the seniors filed into the outdoor commencement ceremony at Morehouse's Century Campus in Atlanta, some wore keffiyehs or Palestinian flag pins, subtle signs of support for the Palestinian civilians amid the war in Gaza .
And ahead of Biden's remarks, valedictorian DeAngelo Jeremiah Fletcher animately talked about the war in Gaza.
'For the first time in our lives, we've heard the global community sing one harmonious song that transcends language and culture,' he said. 'It is my stance as a Morehouse man, nay as a human being, to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.'
Biden clapped.
He echoed that stance during his remarks - while calling the conflict 'heartbreaking.'
'What after? What happens in Gaza? What rights do the Palestinian people have? I am working so that we finally get a two-state solution,' he pledged the student body.
Ahead of the Sunday morning commencement, the White House 's Director of Public Engagement Steve Benjamin, the former mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, met with Morehouse staff and students.
NBC News reported that some of the students expressed that they were worried Biden's appearance would overshadow their graduation day.
'I think what - what's going to be most important are - are the words that the president articulates,' Benjamin said when asked about that concern during Thursday's press briefing. 'And I know that he - he feels very deeply about what this means to these young men.'
He said his conversations with the students were about a number of issues.
'Certainly, many of them wanted to talk about the Middle East and - and war,' Benjamin said.
Pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations have gotten some commencement ceremonies cancelled this spring whereas other graduation speakers have been interrupted by protesting students.
Biden has been followed by demonstrators all over the country as he continues to support Israel 's war against Hamas - though stalled one shipment of 2,000 pound bombs over Palestinian civilian concerns.
Morehouse College is a historically black, all-male school near downtown Atlanta.
The president arrived in Atlanta a day early - and immediately kicked off the trip by greeting a group of Morehouse alumni - including Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock - on the tarmac of the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Georgia's other Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff greeted Biden at the airport as well.
The president then headed to a black-owned restaurant, Mary Mac's Tea Room, to hobnob with a group of supporters.
In the crowd was failed Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who gave the president a quick bow before going in for a hug.
At both the restaurant - and later at a closed-door fundraiser where cameras are barred - Biden urged supporters not to be too worried about the polls.
In a recent New York Times survey , Biden was behind Trump in five of th six battleground states , only beating the ex-president in Wisconsin .
In Georgia, Biden appears to be 10 points down - 39 percent to Trump's 49 percent.
Still, the president predicted 'we're going to do well.'
'Here's the deal, you hear about how, you know, we're behind in the polls. So far the polls haven't been right once,' he said at the restaurant.
He added at the fundraiser later in the afternoon, 'It's hard to make any poll rational these days,' alluding to how voters are hard to touch base with due to the demise of land lines.
'What I look at are actual election results and election results are in the primaries,' the president said.
Biden noted how Trump 'doesn't have an opponent' but lost about 120,000 voters - 128,170 to be exact - in Indiana's Republican primary to Nikki Haley, while around 150,000 Republican in Pennsylvania also backed the former U.N. ambassador over the GOP's presumptive nominee.
'This election a lot's at stake. Lots at stake. It's not about me it's about the alternative as well,' Biden said.
'My opponent is not a good loser. But he is a loser,' Biden told the crowd at Mary Mac's Tea Room, garnering cheers and applause.
At the fundraiser, held at the ornate headquarters of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, the president slapped around Trump as well.
'The threat Trump poses in a second term is greater than in the first term,' Biden said.
'It's clear that when he lost in 2020 something snapped with Trump,' the president continued. 'He's not only obsessed with losing in 2020, he's clearly been unhinged.'
In the crowd there were more prominent Georgia Democratic political figures - with Rep. Lucy McBath, former Sen. Sam Nunn and Sally Yates.
'By the way you have someone here, a former Deputy Attorney General of the Obama-Biden administration, who I've warned her, if I win, watch out. Sally Yates,' Biden teased.
He also applauded the state's former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan - who wasn't on hand but crossed party lines to endorse him.
Biden said he's happily take any of Haley's primary supporters too.
'Let me say there's always going to be a place for Haley voters in my campaign,' the president said.
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How much more division can you give us Joe??? Gonna join Barry in the garden for a beer??
It is an old standby for democrats at election time.
And one of his Dem heroes, President B. Lyndon Johnson, once said, "I'll have those niggers voting Democratic for 200 years."
Sure - the Dems/Libs are for the people - the people they can control.
And Republicans signed onto the Civil Rights Act because it was the right thing to do.
Biden just continues to raise the meaning of hypocrisy to new and higher levels every time he opens his mouth!
The man is poison. China or Russia couldn't do a better job of destroying America internally.
"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices ... to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill ... and suspicion can destroy ... and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own—for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is ... that these things cannot be confined to ... The Twilight Zone!" ...The closing narration of Rod Serling for "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street"
What will generate more anger on the left, Biden, the President of the country, using a graduation speech to attack Republicans and stir up racial division, or a kicker telling graduates that being a homemaker can be an important job too?
My vote goes to the latter. There is one choice that a woman may make which is unacceptable.
oh? do tell...
As we all know, she better not choose her family over a career.
it seems the concept of freedom has many extra barriers to navigate for those that aren't born white xtian males.
'Specifically when everyone knows that Morehouse College is a historically black, all-male school near downtown Atlanta.
Hmmmm - anymore discrimination to pander Joe?
"Hmmm - anymore discrimination to pander Joe?"
Believe me, Joe will certainly find some.
Democrats have been trying to "fix" that for decades.
How many laws have they passed trying to pander to minorities?
All they have done is created more division and inequality.
I am sure all they need is just four more years./S
So passing laws, laws that resulted in breaking down the illegal barriers that held us as 2nd class citizens or worse those laws? Do you know the meaning of pandering, Ronin?
Good to know that there is more division and inequality today than in the past. Segregation was good I guess although I never saw the benefit of it but then I'm not white. We had to go to shit schools, work shit jobs, couldn't buy a house, had to live in non-white neighborhoods but you wouldn't know about that since you didn't have to deal with it.
It has been a long road for us to get some type of equality and we still have a way to go and comments like you made here show that there is still a long road ahead for us.
Biden has a growing problem when it comes to Black voters. especially the younger ones. He wants everyone to forget his racist past.
Biden Reveals He Has No Idea When He Was VP, and What He Called J6 People at NAACP Dinner Is Hilarious – RedState
Tim Scott Reminds Americans of Joe Biden’s Association With a KKK Member (townhall.com)
Will this help:
Biden: Today in Georgia, they won't allow water to be available to you while you wait in line to vote in an election. What in the hell is that all about? And then the constant attacks on Black election workers who count your vote. Insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol with Confederate flags are called ‘patriots’ by some. Not in my house. Black police officers and Black veterans protecting the Capitol were called another word. I never thought when I was graduating in 1968 I'd be president at a time when there's a national effort to ban books and erase history. Graduates, this is what we're up against
Oh yeah - don't forget - "I got more Morehouse men in the White House telling me what to do than I know what to do! You all think I'm kidding, don't you?" he said."
There are no Morehouse men/women working at/in the White House.
You have to understand, to Joe a certain segment of society all look alike, so he may truly believe he has a whitehouse full of Moorehouse grads.
this has been up for three hours and not a single progressive criticized Biden despite their stated reasons for attacking a kicker. Funny to read some of those comments in light of Biden’s politicized assault on half of America
If it ain't "I hate Trump - Trump - Trump sux", they can't discuss actual events.
Yeah - haven't seen any pushback to LBJ's comment - haven't seen/heard any pushback to Joe's "If you don't vote for me, you ain't Black" but, man we get plenty of "nasty" the instant Trump's name shows up or even when they "imagine" that it showed up.
“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.”
― Lyndon B. Johnson
As for Biden ''you ain't black'' comments it was stupid, and I saw plenty of push back on that.
As for DJT, are you aware that he stated he looks more Indian the the Indians applying for a gambling li. license? He also stated that the reservations were nothing but Mafia invested. He has a long and not so pretty history with Indians, but hey who cares, right, Biden is the racist.
And there was the hearing in NY when he lied and insulted Indians and in fact he and Stone were fined $250,000 for those lies and had to issue an apology.
Not a single one of them will comment on it. To criticize Traitor Joe would mean they would have to publicly acknowledge that he's a problem. Their silence on his racist statements, lies and mental decline is deafening.
For them it is much easier to take the words of a kicker out of context and cry about it than deal with the repercussions of honest talk about the Alzheimer patient in the WH.