President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday with trips to Pennsylvania and South Carolina – two states considered key for the president’s reelection campaign in 2024.
This year, Martin Luther King Jr. Day falls on what would have been the late civil rights leader’s 95th birthday, and 2024 marks 60 years since the signing of the Civil Rights Act.
Biden kicked off the events honoring Dr. King’s legacy with a stop in Philadelphia, notching the president’s third trip to battleground Pennsylvania in the first three weeks of the new year. In the Keystone state, Biden joined volunteers at Philabundance, a hunger relief organization that distributes food to nine counties throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The president chatted with fellow volunteers who included local youth aged 13 to 25 as he joined the produce packing line.
“Brought my hat,” Biden remarked as he walked in, pointing to his green cap that read “Philabundance.”
It marked Biden’s third time in four years taking part in food packing at the Philadelphia organization on Martin Luther King Jr., Day of Service, according to the White House.
“From bridges and ballot boxes to pulpits and courthouses, Dr. King courageously stood for the sacred idea that embodies the soul of America,” Biden wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter to commemorate the day. “We are all created equal in the image of God and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives.”
Meanwhile, in South Carolina, a key state for the Democratic primary and one that proved crucial to Biden's campaign in 2020, Harris delivered a stark warning that freedom in America is “under profound threat.”
“As Dr. King wrote in the letter from Birmingham jail, the goal of America is freedom,” Harris said during her keynote address at the NAACP South Carolina State Conference. “And so, we gather this afternoon to honor his legacy and I therefore pose a question that I do believe Dr. King would ask today: in 2024 where exactly is America in our fight for freedom?”
Harris, the country’s woman and person of color to be elected vice president, went on to argue that while the country has “come far,” we are currently “witnessing a full-on attack on hard fought, hard won freedoms.”
The vice president specifically pointed to changes in voting laws that critics say restrict access to the ballot box, the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade that limits the ability for women to receive an abortion as well as what have become known as culture war issues such as book bans – all topics in which Harris has become a key voice for the administration
Harris also appeared to indirectly reference two GOP presidential candidates, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – both of whom, along with their competitors, are preparing for the Republican party’s first nominating contest in Iowa Monday night.
“They even try to erase, overlook and rewrite the ugly parts of our past,” Harris said of those who she believes are threatening freedom. “For example, the Civil War, which must I really have to say was about slavery.”
Harris was seemingly referencing a recent town hall event in New Hampshire, where Haley was asked about the cause of the Civil War and did not mention slavery, but talked about the role of government. She has since said she thought slavery was a “given” in the cause and has highlighted her role in taking down the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state Capitol building when she was governor following a racially motivated mass shooting at a church in Charleston in 2015.
Last week, Biden delivered his second campaign speech of the election year from the site of that 2015 shooting, Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in which he argued that white supremacy is a “poison” that has “ripped this nation apart.”
The vice president went on to day “they tell our children that enslaved people benefited from slavery.”
DeSantis last year backed new public school standards in which children are taught that some Black people learned skills from slavery that could be used for their personal benefit. Soon after, Harris made a trip to Florida to deliver a speech condemning the new guidelines.
The Florida governor has argued the Biden administration is putting out misinformation and emphasized that scholars put together the new standards.
Also Monday, Biden is expected to join Rev. Al Sharpton on his SiriusXM show "Keepin’ It Real" on Monday afternoon to mark the holiday, according to a press release from the National Action Network, the group founded by the activist and civil rights leader.