In a mix of sermon and political rally, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, made the second stop of the 2024 campaign for his re-election this Monday. Biden traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, to Mother Emanuel Church where in 2015, when he was vice president, a 21-year-old white supremacist murdered nine black parishioners to spark a race war. South Carolina, as the president recalled, was the State in which he began to make his way in the 2020 Democratic primaries thanks to the black vote, to which he now appeals, while condemning racism and political violence.
In Mother Emanuel, Biden said from the pulpit, “the word of God was pierced by bullets of hate, of rage, propelled not only by gunpowder, but by a poison, a poison that for too long has haunted this nation.” specifying that he was referring to “white supremacy.” “Throughout our history, it has torn this nation apart. This has no place in America. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever,” said the president, who highlighted how those who stormed the Capitol three years ago carried Confederate flags and drew a parallel between the losers of the Civil War and the loser of the 2020 elections, Donald Trump.
“After the Civil War, the defeated Confederates could not accept the outcome of the war: they had lost. So, they say, they embraced what is known as the Lost Cause, a self-serving lie that the Civil War was not about slavery but about states' rights. And they have called that the noble cause. “That was a lie (…) that had terrible consequences,” Biden said.
“So, let me be clear for those who don't seem to know: Slavery was the cause of the Civil War. There is no negotiation about that,” she stressed, weeks after Republican Nikki Haley omitted slavery as a cause of the war, when asked about it, something for which she ended up apologizing. Haley was governor of South Carolina in 2015 at the time of the Mother Emanuel massacre, and she gained national recognition for her response, which included signing a bill to remove the Confederate flag from the state Capitol.
“We are now living in an era of a second lost cause. Once again, there are some in this country trying to turn a loss into a lie, a lie that, if allowed to live, will once again bring terrible harm to this country. This time, the lie is about the 2020 elections, the elections in which you made your voices heard and made your power known,” Biden continued, continuing to weave both plots.
“On January 6 we saw something we had never seen, not even during the Civil War. Insurrectionists waving Confederate flags inside the halls of Congress built by enslaved Americans. A mob attacked and called the black officers, the black veterans who defended the nation, those vile racist names,” he denounced.
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Biden has decided to present himself as a bulwark of democracy in the face of the threat he considers that Trump, his probable rival in the presidential elections, represents to it. On this occasion, however, she emphasized issues of equality and civil rights, to try to attract the black electorate, which was so important for Biden four years ago. “It is thanks to this congregation and the black community of South Carolina and I am not exaggerating (…) that I am here today as your president,” she admitted.
The president has therefore insisted on some achievements of his presidency that he considers have especially benefited the African-American population, such as investments in infrastructure, aid for the deployment of high-speed internet, job creation, cuts and moratoriums on student debt or cheaper medicines.
Attacks on Trump
The president has started 2024 with direct attacks on Donald Trump that he had avoided for most of his presidency. Now he seems to have put on his campaign suit to try to regain ground in the polls. Mobilizing the electorate opposed to the former president is one of the best assets he has in his power.
Biden has repeated part of the speech he gave in Blue Bell (Pennsylvania) last Friday, but has also incorporated new attacks. The exchanges of blows in the distance demonstrate the marking to which they are subjected to each other. “Just a few days ago, the defeated former president was asked about the recent shooting in Iowa. Have you heard it? It's hard to believe. Do you know what his response was, all those dead children? 'We have to get over it', end of quote. “I promise you,” Biden said, crossing himself. “My answer is: we have to stop it.”
Shortly after beginning his speech, the president had been interrupted by a group of pro-Palestinian protesters. Some also came to protest outside the venue where last Friday's rally was held, in what seems to be an uncomfortable presence for him throughout the campaign. One of the attendees stood up and said, “If you really care about the lives lost here, then you should honor the lives lost and call for a ceasefire in Palestine!” Several more shouted for a ceasefire in Gaza. Most of the attendees, meanwhile, chanted “Four more years! Four more years! ”In reference to his re-election for a second term.
Biden explained: “I understand your passion. And I have been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to significantly reduce and exit Gaza. I’ve been using everything I can to do that.” Once the protesters were evicted, one of the members of the public agreed with him: “They don't realize that. You are a good man”.
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