Joe Biden has launched one of his most scathing attacks yet Donald Trump‘s record on racism, suggesting the former US president would have acted differently from the January 6, 2021 uprising had he been led by Black people.
The comments, at a dinner hosted by a civil rights group in a critical swing state, signaled an intensifying battle between Biden and Trump for African American voters ahead of November’s presidential election.
“Let me ask you,” Biden said during a speech at an NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) dinner in Detroit. “What do you think he would have done on January 6 if Black Americans had stormed the Capitol?”
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There were collective gasps and murmurs in the cavernous convention center, where an estimated 5,000 guests had gathered. The president insisted, “No, I mean it. What do you think? I can only imagine.”
The vast majority of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 in an attempt to overturn his election defeat were white. One was depicted flying the flag of the Confederacy, which fought the Civil War of 1861-1865 in a failed attempt to preserve slavery in the South.
But as a congressional panel investigating the attack noted, Trump remained in the White House and took no action for hours, even as the mob threatened to hang his vice president, Mike Pence. He eventually released a video calling on the rioters to stand down and go home.
As of January 6, more than 1,265 defendants have been charged and hundreds jailed for their roles. But Trump has described them as “patriots” and “hostages” and, as Biden noted in his remarks, suggested he would pardon them if re-elected.
Biden spoke while campaigning through Georgia and Michigan, two battlegrounds where the black vote will be crucial. Polls show a small but significant percentage turning from Biden to Trump.
The president told the crowd in Detroit: “You are the reason Donald Trump was defeated as president. You are the reason Donald Trump will be a loser again.”
Biden praised his own record, but kept returning to Trump and the threat he poses to democracy. He highlighted his own appointment of the first black female Supreme Court justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson.
“Let me ask you: Who do you think he’ll put on the Supreme Court?” he asked. “Do you think he’ll pick someone with brains?”
Biden also accused Republicans of banning books and undermining African-American history. “Extremists close the doors of opportunity, crush affirmative action, attack the values of diversity, equality and inclusion,” he said.
“They don’t see you in America’s future, but they’re wrong. We know that black history is American history.”
The president also warned: “The threat Trump poses in a second term is greater than the first.” He said “something was broken in Trump” after his 2020 election defeat and “he is clearly unhinged.”
The president received one of the biggest cheers of the night when he declared himself a “union man,” adding, “I walked the picket line with union workers here in Michigan. At the same time, Trump initiated a non-union shutdown to show his disrespect for union workers.”
Other speakers included Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who has been tipped as a potential presidential candidate in 2028.
