President Joe Biden recently delivered the spring commencement address at Morehouse College, a historic black liberal arts college, and the speech did not go as planned.
While many on the left proclaimed the speech as “powerful,” not all students appreciated the president’s giving the address, believing it to be an attempt by his campaign to pander to black America. “I don’t see myself being there,” a student told WANF-TV prior to the address. “At the end of the day, this is kind of like something that’s on his political agenda to kind of maybe get more young black voters.”
Others pointed out how several members of the audience actively showed their disapproval of the speech.
“Even with his support among the black community in decline, Morehouse College, an HBCU, was supposed to be safe ground for Biden to give a commencement address, but instead some graduating students turned their backs on him as he spoke,” said one user on X.
Biden’s Divisive Rhetoric
Biden used the speech as an opportunity to address the political issues of the day, and his rhetoric earned harsh rebukes from some.
“What is democracy if black men are being killed in the street? What is democracy if a trail of broken promises still leave[s] black communities behind? What is democracy if you have to be 10 times better than anyone else to get a fair shot?” Biden said. “Most of all, what does it mean, as we’ve heard before, to be a black man who loves his country even if it doesn’t love him back in equal measure?”
Political commentator Lou Valentino pushed back against Biden’s remarks on Fox News.
“Race baiter! It’s tough to hear that because imagine you’re going to college for four years, ya know ready to hit the world, start a career and this guy’s trying to set you back,” Valentino said. “I don’t know what’s going on with the Democrats, this role that they’re trying to play. Instead of pulling up and saying well, here we go, this is your time, congratulations, let’s kill it, let’s do our best. Nah, you know what, they don’t love you like that.”
Biden Loses Black Voters
Throughout his presidency, Biden has relied on divisive rhetoric to shore up support and undermine his opposition, particularly when discussing matters of race. Recently, at a dinner hosted by the NAACP in Detroit, Biden suggested that former President Donald Trump would have responded differently to the Jan. 6 riots if the rioters had been black.
“Let me ask you, what do you think he would have done on January 6 if black Americans had stormed the Capitol?” Biden said. “No, I’m serious. What do you think? I can only imagine.”
Despite Biden’s best efforts, the latest polls show that his support among black voters is slowly waning, leaving the president desperate to regain the vote of a once solidly Democrat block of the American population.
Biden’s political supporters, however, are in denial. “I don’t accept the premise that there’s any erosion of black support,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson recently told reporters.
Should this erosion of support, especially that of young black voters like the graduates of Morehouse College, continue into the fall, Team Biden may have to accept the possibility of failure come Election Day.
READ MORE from Elyse Apel:
Jennifer Lawrence Jabs at Mike Pence at the GLAAD Awards