Joe Biden courted a small group of black reporters representing major news outlets, holding an exclusive, free-wheeling question-and-answer session with the journalists.
It is common practice for presidential candidates to grant interviews to outlets that serve a predominantly black audience or readership. But it is highly unusual for a campaign to select reporters themselves on the basis of their race.
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For 90 minutes, Biden, 76, was peppered with questions from 10 black journalists who cover the campaign or broader race issues on Tuesday afternoon in Washington, D.C., ahead of his two-day swing of South Carolina, where African American Democrats comprise the majority of the primary electorate. Reporters in attendance included ABC News’ Averi Harper and Rachel Scott, the Associated Press’ Errin Haines and Juana Summers, the New York Times’ Astead Herndon, Politico’s Nolan McCaskill, the Washington Post’s Vanessa Williams, and USA Today’s Deborah Berry.
The discussion had initially been billed by the Biden team as a short, off-the-record conversation, but the former vice president waved the restrictions at the start, allowing himself to be quoted for more than an hour.
Biden’s national press secretary Jamal Brown told the Washington Examiner his boss “wanted an opportunity to engage with reporters in detail on issues and concerns of most importance to voters.”
“The roundtable was one in a series the campaign will do and is a critical way of reaching voters of all backgrounds,” Brown said.
During the sit-down, Biden reiterated how he was the most electable candidate of the crowded 2020 Democratic presidential field, said institutional racism was “a white man’s problem,” and pushed for smaller debates going forward. He also followed many of his White House opponents in stating his preference for a woman or person of color as a running mate.
“People know me,” the longtime senator for Delaware said, defending his record in the face of criticism from black rivals like California Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Cory Booker. “After all this time, I think they have a sense of what my character is, who I am, warts and all.”
“I have never, ever, ever, in my entire life, had a circumstance where I have felt uncomfortable in the black community,” he added.
Biden’s persistent front-runner status in early polling is boosted by his support from older African American Democrats, but as he himself said Tuesday, “that doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way.”
This week’s minority outreach effort comes after Biden turned down an invitation to the National Association of Black Journalists’ presidential forum, held last month in Miami. Biden sent staff, while Booker, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders attended in person.
Tuesday’s session is not the first time a Biden minority outreach initiative that was supposed to be private has spilled over into the public domain.
Politico reported this month that Latino leaders at the annual UnidosUS conference in the San Diego, California, grilled Biden on his “get in line” comments, made in reference to illegal immigration during the Detroit debates in July. A readout of the meeting distributed by the Biden camp described it as “a meaningful dialogue.”
