Vice President Joe Biden warned Monday that a Donald Trump presidency would directly harm the country’s black population, and said the country wouldn’t survive a Trump victory.
“Tomorrow is going to affect whether or not you have a government that treats everyone with dignity,” Biden told a crowd in Tallahassee, Fla., adding that the Tuesday will “impact all your tomorrows for the next 10 or 12 years.”
Later in his remarks, Biden put it more starkly. “These guys are whacked out,” he said of Trump and anyone who votes for him. “Tell me, if you think this country can survive for four years” under his leadership?
Biden argued that Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Calif., would defund Pell grants for tuition to Historically Black Colleges, or HBCUs.
“Does anyone here think that Trump will continue to put $300 million into additional Pell grants to be able to help HCBUs continue to grow?” he asked to roars of “No,” in the audience.
“Imagine the fact of those thousands of African Americans and Hispanics … imagine the fate of their brothers and sisters without the support we’ve been giving them thus far,” he said.
He went on to ask the crowd to “imagine Donald Trump’s Supreme Court.”
“The Roberts court has already tried to eviscerate the Voting Rights Act,” he said. “Imagine the attorney general this guy would appoint? When you have 27 states trying to pass oppressive voting laws that will prevent African Americans from voting] … not a joke, not a joke.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, this goes to your character — what is the character of this nation. Folks at the end of the day, it’s about what we value,” he said.
