In a fiery speech in front of the NAACP National Convention in the battleground state of Nevada, President Joe Biden on Tuesday sought to make a forceful pitch to Black voters while sharply criticizing his Republican rival’s record on supporting such communities.
The president specifically honed into former President Donald Trump’s use of the term “Black jobs” when talking about immigration during last month’s debate and his rally the next day, telling the crowd it says “a lot about the man and about his character.”
“Folks, I know what a ‘Black job’ is, it's the vice president of the United States,” Biden said at the convention in in Las Vegas, referring to his vice president, Kamala Harris, the first Black person to hold the role, as the audience roared.
He also touted his service as vice president to Barack Obama, America’s first Black president.
Biden also railed against Trump for attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act, spearheading a tax cut that he said “overwhelmingly” benefited the super wealthy and “lying like hell” about the unemployment rate among Black Americans under his administration.
“Black unemployment hit a record low under Biden-Harris administration,” he said. The unemployment rate among such communities reached a record low of 4.8% last year, during Biden’s time in office, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
The president used Tuesday’s speech to tout his own record, pointing to his investments in HBCUs and student loan forgiveness, while laying out his goals to support Black communities during his first 11 days of a second term: passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, the Freedom to Vote Act, restore Roe v. Wade, raising the federal minimum wage, expand social security and Medicare by raising taxes on the wealthy and more.
The stop in Las Vegas also served as a chance for Biden to lay out a new proposal to require major landlords to cap annual rent increases at 5% – something that would require approval from Congress.
Biden’s trip to battleground Nevada is a part of his team’s effort to counter the Republican National Convention taking place in Milwaukee this week. In a memo, the Biden campaign’s Nevada Communications Director referred to the state as a “critical piece” for the team in November.
The memo notes the Biden camp has more than 80 staff members and 13 coordinated campaign offices on the ground in the Silver State. Harris launched the campaign’s program to reach Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander in the state last week.
Biden won Nevada in 2020 over Trump by less than three percentage points. A number of recent polls show Trump with a lead over Biden in the state.
The president on Tuesday was joined on the campaign trail by several members of the Congressional Black Caucus, whose support has been important for Biden following his debate performance last month that sent a wave of panic about Biden’s ability to beat Trump through the Democratic party and led to about 20 Democrats in Congress calling on Biden to drop out of the race.
The stop also comes just days after an attempted assassination against Trump. In the wake of the shooting, Biden has made pleas for the American to turn the temperature down in politics while Trump has called for unity.
“ Our politics has gotten too heated,” Biden said on Tuesday.
The event has led to a wider conversation about the impacts of rhetoric in American politics as some Republicans have pointed to Biden’s language to describe Trump as having an effect on Saturday’s shooting.
Biden reiterated his message on Tuesday that everyone has a responsibility to lower the temperature while also saying that doesn’t mean “we should stop telling the truth,” before criticizing Trump.