The president used his appearance in Philadelphia to criticize his rival, former President Donald Trump.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, where they launched a new campaign initiative aimed at mobilizing and engaging black voters.
The pair announced the new effort, known as “Black Voters for Biden-Harris,” during a visit to Philadelphia’s Girard College, a boarding school that is predominantly made up of black students.
According to a press release from the Biden-Harris campaign, the new initiative will bolster the “continued historic investments in outreach” to black voters, which serve as the “backbone” of the Biden-Harris coalition.
As part of the new mobilization drive, the campaign will partner with black organizations to increase outreach among voters in key states and collaborate with groups on voter education and registration activations, both online and on the ground.
The campaign will also utilize partner organizations’ networks to “strengthen our voter protection efforts to safeguard the Black vote from continued MAGA attacks,” according to the press release.
The Biden-Harris campaign plans to hold multiple events in battleground states, including black church engagement in Arizona, new office openings throughout Georgia, and a community-led block party-style celebration in Nevada, campaign officials said.
Further organizing events will also take place throughout the weekend in Florida, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Biden’s Support Slips Among Black Voters
The president used his appearance in Philadelphia to criticize his rival, former President Donald Trump, whose recent South Bronx campaign stop drew thousands of supporters in one of the most Democrat-leaning counties in the nation.
President Biden also used the opportunity to tout his successes during his time in office, including appointing the first black woman to the United States Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and appointing more black women to the federal circuit courts than“every other president in American history combined.”
His visit came as recent polling showed support for the president among black adults—one of his most loyal constituencies in 2020—has declined dramatically while President Trump appears to be gaining support among African Americans, in particular men.
President Biden’s overall approval rating among black Americans has decreased from 87 percent in March 2021 to 55 percent in April 2023, according to Pew Research.
“Because Black Americans voted, Kamala and I are President and Vice President of the United States — because of you,” President Biden said at Girard College.
“That’s not hyperbole,” he continued. “Because you voted, Donald Trump is a defeated former president and with your vote in 2024, we’re going to make Donald Trump a loser again.”
Trump Poses ‘Even Greater Threat’ in Second Term
The Democrat went on to claim that “all progress, all freedom, all opportunities are at risk,” amid President Trump’s attempts to be elected to the White House again in November.
“Trump is trying to make the country forget just how dark and unsettling things were when he was president,” he said, adding that the “threat that Trump poses is greater in his second term than his first.”
Later, Ms. Harris also attempted to paint a dire picture of what she claimed life could be like if President Trump were to be sworn into office again.
She also accused President Biden’s Republican rival of trying to “take healthcare from millions of Black Americans” and claimed he had proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare “year after year” while in office.
President Trump has denied this and claimed Democrats twisted his words.
The vice president also threw out other accusations against President Trump, including that he had “handpicked” three members of the Supreme Court “with the intention that they would overturn Roe v. Wade” while calling the court’s ruling a “Trump abortion ban.”
“If he wins a second term, I promise you, he’s going to go even further,” Ms. Harris said.