President Joe Biden contended that there are “extreme voices” in America who “don’t want to see people of color in the future of our country” during a virtual appearance in front of the National Action Network’s 2024 Convention on Friday.
“There are more extreme voices out there who simply don’t want to see people of color in the future of our country,” Biden said during live remarks at the White House that were broadcast in front of the racial justice conference in New York on Friday.
“They want to turn back the clock,” he continued, “voter suppression; election subversion; ripping away reproductive freedom; getting affirmative action — gutting it and attacking diversity across American life; banning books — this is 2024 — banning books, attempting to erase history; embracing political violence, like what happened on January the Sixth.”
The president said such voices are “determined” to erase history and argued “our very democracy is at stake” — a message that was a pillar of his pitch to voters in 2020 and one in which Biden has made clear is sticking around in 2024 as he stares down a likely rematch with former President Donald Trump this November.
“One vision is propelled by anger, hate, revenge, and retribution,” Biden said, seeking to draw a contrast between him and the “extreme voice” he spoke of earlier. “The other vision — our vision, your vision — of perseverance, progress, hope and optimism, and everything the National Action Network stands for and embodies.”
Biden also asserted that his team was the “most diverse administration in history,” pointing specifically to Vice President Kamala Harris, the first female, the first Black and the first South Asian American to hold the role.
Biden went on to tout his accomplishments for Black communities, including on lowering the cost of insulin, reconnecting neighborhoods split by highways and relieving student debt. Last year, his administration gave $76 billion in federal contracts to small, disadvantaged businesses, Biden said.
Friday’s appearance comes as the president seeks to reach Black voters ahead of November amid polling that indicates support from some in the communities could be slipping.
A survey from the Wall Street Journal released this week found 30% of Black men and 11% of Black women said they will likely support Trump in 2024. That marked an increase, the Wall Street Journal noted in its poll findings, from the 12% and the 6% respectively who supported the former president in 2020 according to AP VoteCast.
A poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found just over half of Black Americans said they approve of Biden’s handling of his job in March while 45% said they disapprove.
“I would argue this is transformational change,” the president said of his work over his first three years in the Oval Office. “But we know there’s much more work to do.”
Biden has not been able to deliver on some key priorities such as passing sweeping protections combating restrictive voting laws and enacting his broad student loan forgiveness plan.
“I see an America where, with your help, I sign the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act into law, where I sign the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act into law, where we make Roe v. Wade the law of the land again,” Biden said. “I see a future where we give hate no safe harbor and call out the poison of white supremacy.”
The president was introduced on Friday by the Rev. Al Sharpton on Friday. Harris delivered remarks in person at the conference last year.