President Trump’s campaign decried Joe Biden’s comment that those struggling to choose whether to vote for him or the Republican president are not black.
Biden, 77, had a tense exchange on The Breakfast Club morning show about race issues Friday that touched on marijuana legalization and the 1994 crime bill.
“If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black,” Biden said at the end of the interview.
Black Voices for Trump, an arm of the president’s reelection campaign, called the statement “racist and dehumanizing.”
“White liberal elitists have continuously dictated which black Americans are allowed to come to the table and have a voice. It is clear now more than ever, following these racist and dehumanizing remarks, that Joe Biden believes black men and women are incapable of being independent or free-thinking,” Trump senior adviser Katrina Pierson said in a statement on Friday. “He truly believes that he, a 77-year-old white man, should dictate how black people should behave. Biden has a history of racial condescension, and today, he once again proved what a growing number of black Americans and I have always known: Joe Biden does not deserve our votes.”
More of those on Trump’s campaign quickly condemned the statement.
The president’s son Donald Trump Jr. said, “This sounds racist AF.” The official campaign account called it “disgusting.”
“This, ladies and gentlemen, is why they very rarely let Joe Biden do anything that isn’t completely controlled and scripted,” said Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh. “Sometimes, he accidentally says what he thinks.”
The Trump campaign also quoted rapper Kanye West: “I will not be told who I’m gonna vote on because of my color.”
Biden’s statement is likely to be highlighted by Trump throughout the 2020 election cycle.
An average of 90% of black voters have voted for the Democratic presidential candidate for decades, but the Trump campaign hopes to capture a larger percentage of the 8% of black voters he won in 2016. While Trump’s team does not aim to win the black vote, gaining in that group could help give Trump an edge in competitive swing states.
Retweet if you think this sounds racist AF!!!
Imagine if Donald Trump said this… https://t.co/cyrzWWgmaJ
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 22, 2020
This, ladies and gentlemen, is why they very rarely let Joe Biden do anything that isn’t completely controlled and scripted.
Sometimes he accidentally says what he thinks.
Like how he, a 77-year-old white man, should be the arbiter of how Black people should act. https://t.co/JuYMGBfvuk
— Tim Murtaugh – Download the Trump 2020 app today! (@TimMurtaugh) May 22, 2020
Remember when Joe Biden told Black Americans that Republicans would “put ya’ll back in chains?”
Instead, Republicans created an economy that led to a surge in Black worker wages and the lowest Black unemployment rate ever. https://t.co/D4YrOWz5Um
— Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) May 22, 2020
This is disgusting.
Joe Biden: “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black.” pic.twitter.com/UvYZTjcPqZ
— Trump War Room – Text TRUMP to 88022 & get the APP (@TrumpWarRoom) May 22, 2020
“I will not be told who I’m gonna vote on because of my color.” – Kanye West pic.twitter.com/YcHJyfGM8B
— Trump War Room – Text TRUMP to 88022 & get the APP (@TrumpWarRoom) May 22, 2020
