With less than six months until the November general election, the presidential race seems to be so tied that surveys show each candidate currently getting equal support from American voters across the nation. President Joe Biden and the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, are expected to direct their campaign efforts in the critical battleground states in the months leading up to the election. When it comes to swing states, former President Trump is leading Biden.
Key groups
Trump’s edge over Biden in the swing states comes from several key voters’ groups that usually vote Democrats by default. However, a decent portion of them might shift this year. This trend was first brought to Biden’s camp’s attention early this year when Black, Arab, and Muslim voters in Michigan raised their voices against the Biden administration for openly supporting Israel in the Gaza attacks. Since then, the numbers have only gotten worse for Democrats, as Trump manages to widen the gap.
A challenge
Efforts to win back the trust of key voter groups would be a difficult, challenging, and expensive endeavor for Team Biden. While focusing on the seven battleground states, Biden’s campaign will also have to focus on solving some major problems, like an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. During the weekend, Biden visited Georgia, where he had several events in what is considered an attempt to win the state again after winning in 2020 by a margin. Biden’s Georgia visit drew mixed reactions from political experts and people who first-hand attended some of the events.
The Georgia visit
A recent article in the New York Times highlighted that numerous Morehouse College students protested during President Joe Biden’s speech at their graduation. These protests occurred on Sunday, May 19, when President Biden was giving the commencement speech and also received an honorary degree from the historically Black college.
Not a pleasant welcome for the president
While some alumni of Morehouse gave President Biden a warm welcome with a standing ovation, a group of graduates displayed their dissent by turning their chairs away from him and wearing keffiyeh scarves and Palestinian flags. Additionally, other students chose to leave the graduation ceremony as a form of protest against President Biden. This reaction was in response to opposition from students, alumni, and some faculty members regarding Morehouse’s choice to invite President Biden as the commencement speaker and to present him with an honorary doctorate degree.
“I support peaceful nonviolent protest,” Biden told students in his speech. “Your voices should be heard, and I promise you I hear them.” He also said he is “working around the clock” for an immediate ceasefire.
At the conclusion of Biden’s commencement address, people in the VIP section shouted, “Four more years.”
Opposition
In a letter to Morehouse officials, Dr. Marlon Millner, a Morehouse alum, asked that the school “not award [an] honorary degree to someone morally complicit in a war in Gaza.”
“[Morehouse alumni Martin Luther King Jr.] challenged a historically courageous [Lyndon B. Johnson] on Vietnam after the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. That’s moral courage, not moral complicity or moral complacency,” Millner wrote. “Morehouse does produce businessmen, but let’s not fail to produce better men. Morehouse does produce politicians, but let’s not fail to produce men of principle. This is a defining moment where actions, not accolades will matter.”
Before Biden’s commencement speech, Morehouse valedictorian DeAngelo Fletcher addressed the graduating class, calling for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza strip.”
Fletcher was applauded for his speech by the audience and Biden, who shook his hand, according to reports.
Online users brutal reactions
X user Paul A. Szypula shared part of Biden’s speech in Georgia during the weekend where he is speaking about Democracy and correlations with the rights of Black people in America.
“Joe Biden just told graduates at Morehouse College in Georgia that America hates them because they’re black,” the X user commented above the short clip. “This divisive rhetoric is exactly why Biden is losing support of the black community,” the user concluded.
Joe Biden just told graduates at Morehouse College in Georgia that America hates them because they’re black.
This divisive rhetoric is exactly why Biden is losing support of the black community.pic.twitter.com/XmmGubCSVp
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) May 19, 2024
Most to those who commented on the clip agreed with it.
“Good lord. The crowd knew this was pandering c*ap. The applause was very thin. Embarrassing,” one user commented. “Democrats are obsessed with race. It’s how they pick sides and divide us,” another user added.
“Race baiting, race pandering, brazen pursuit of divisiveness…. this is extremely disrespectful, undignified…. shameful,” a user that goes by the name @Bill_StebbinsJR commented. “And you hear it in the half-hearted, flaccid “applause”….,” he added in the post.
Read also: Even California Rep. Pelosi doubts Biden’s debate skills, his ability to handle Trump
“Not a very hearty applause after that ridiculous statement. It doesn’t appear that they are buying into the lies anymore,” @Defenestrate123 also commented. “5 people clapped. They don’t buy it anymore,” another user concluded.
