This weekend, as President Biden attended events in Georgia and Michigan to engage with the Black community, Team Biden-Harris took to the airwaves to highlight President Biden’s record of delivering for Black Americans after Donald Trump failed them. Since taking office, President Biden has made record investments in historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), achieved the lowest Black unemployment rate in our history, spurred a 30-year high in Black small business growth, and more. President Biden and Vice President Harris have kept their promises to the Black community — and they’re running for reelection because there’s more to do.
Here’s just some of what they are saying:
On MSNBC, Biden-Harris 2024 National Advisory Board Member Senator Warnock: “[President Biden] has invested $16 billion in historically Black colleges and universities… And the president has invested $160 billion in student debt relief that has helped some 4 million Americans. Black wealth is up 60 percent, since before the pandemic. We are at a 30-year high in the starting of Black businesses. Black unemployment is at a historic low. I think as we get closer to November, people will be paying more attention and the contrast between these two candidates could not be more stark. And let me say this, because he's headed to Morehouse... I want Black men to remember that it was Donald Trump who, when we saw five Black and Hispanic men in the 1980s accused of a rape, a vicious rape, in Central Park, that it was Donald Trump who took out a full-page ad calling for the death penalty of these teenagers. And in the years since, they have been exonerated. They were innocent. Has Donald Trump apologized for calling for the execution of these young Black men, for calling on and engaging the old tropes of dangerousness that are often weaponized against Black men? The contrast could not be more stark. Here, we have a president who understands the promise of these young men that he’ll be standing in front of tomorrow. And he has put the people's money where his mouth is, and I am proud that we will get to hear from him…”
On MSNBC, Biden-Harris 2024 National Co-Chair Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester: “How important it is that this president made it very clear that HBCUs are a priority which is why there has been a $16 billion investment in HBCUs, the most of any president. And also that Black men are important to this president and to this administration. So we congratulate the Morehouse men on their efforts and their achievements but I’m also really proud of the speech that the president gave where he really led the charge on what is at stake and what is next for them as they look toward their future.”
On MSNBC, Congressman Bennie Thompson: “All Joe Biden has to do is say what he has done over the last three years plus that have significantly altered the trajectory of historically Black colleges, he's not a stranger. He knows the concerns of the Black community in general, but more specifically, for his background, he has been very helpful to the program, the administration has made a difference. He helped get all of our colleges through COVID, he has targeted money specifically to help the underfunding of historically Black colleges.”
On MSNBC, Biden-Harris 2024 National Advisory Board Member Governor Wes Moore: “When you look at the president doing things like rescheduling cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III, having the largest pardon for cannabis convictions, having the largest growth in Black-owned businesses for Black men in 30 years – we now have a president who's actually doing something about it about the systemic challenges we've been facing… And President Biden has been the partner that all of us have needed and all of us have been asking to have alongside us in this work.”
On MSNBC, Mayor Randall Woodfin: “Insulin, capping it at $35, he has shown Americans, he has shown Black Americans in all households that as it relates to your health care, he will fight to make sure you don't have to choose between health care and paying for medicine and/or paying another bill and keeping the lights on. And so he is taking on Big Pharma and I think with him not being in office, we not only lose insulin not being capped at $35, but the opportunity for more families who are Americans, for health care to be manageable. … Marijuana, changing the laws around marijuana, as a lawyer I’ve seen so many young people come before courts for possession of marijuana and it’s totally changed their lives for the worse. He is rectifying that again, rolling back things that have hurt families, rolling back things that hurt young people. And, related to loan forgiveness... And so I think this president has real, tangible receipts that over the last three years what he’s done for all Americans, he has done more in his first three years as… many presidents combined in all eight years. What we would lose is not just good policy, but tangible things that literally improve the quality of life of everyday Americans.”
On CNN, Biden-Harris 2024 National Advisory Board Member State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta: “This president has a story to tell, appointed more African American women to the bench than every other president combined, stood by his word in picking an incredible vice president in Kamala Harris, and this administration is focused on getting the job done. And this is what's good: When you do the right thing, that also turns out to be good politics. And this president is doing the right thing, focused on all Americans, focused on lifting up Black Americans, and he's going to tell that story at Morehouse. And he's going to tell it for the next six months and beyond when he wins another four year term. He's the only person to ever beat Donald Trump, and he's going to beat him again.”
On MSNBC, Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis: “I think it is extremely exciting that President Biden is going to deliver this year's commencement at Morehouse. Given all that is at stake for the future of Black America, it’s so important that President Biden is going to speak to the future of Black America, these young students here. I think what you can expect from the president is he is going to talk about his historic record of delivering for Black Americans… Black wealth is up 60 percent since the pandemic, Black small businesses are starting at a faster rate than in 30 years, and Black unemployment is at a historic low. He has a historic record to talk about for these young people, but also to lay out the stakes in this election, but also where a second Biden term is going to take us in terms of Black Americans.”
On CNN, Detroit NAACP President Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony: “Be Joe Biden. Be the person who has lost family members to cancer, to a tragic accident. Be the person who understands how to touch the common person. Be the person… that came to walk the line with autoworkers… I have autoworkers in my church. As a result of the increases in wages, they now have made more money – making more money… That's a good thing… Loan elimination is very important. People in my church have benefited from the loan liquidation program that he has instituted…”
On TMZ, Biden-Harris 2024 Black Media Director Jasmine Harris: “The president and the vice president ran on specific promises to the Black community, and they delivered on those promises. We have millions of new jobs created for Black workers that’s resulted in record-low Black unemployment rate. We have Black owned small businesses starting up at the fastest rate in generations because the president made a priority to make sure we have federal investments in these businesses. Black child poverty was cut in half during the pandemic. He has… appointed more Black women to the federal bench than all of the other presidents combined… He really has delivered for Black America.”
On MSNBC, Anthony Cole: “The overlay of what the president has done on student loan debt reduction, that is transformative for these young people. I mean, you want to talk about closing the racial wealth gap? I mean, there — you would be hard-pressed to find any other policy announcement that would do just that.”
On MSNBC, Davante Jennings: “I thought the speech was everything I wanted it to be. I think he stood ten toes on a lot of points that I felt like he needs to be hitting. Of course, we want to keep the main focus on the graduates as people were saying before, but I think it is important for us as the Black community to be aware of all the things that he has done, and the biggest thing is how much money has been going to HBCUs. I think he conquered the moment in my opinion.”
On MSNBC Former Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson: “It's important for President Biden to talk to Black voters not as Black voters but as voters. Black Americans, like everyone else, are concerned about the economy. They are concerned about inflation. They are concerned about their children's future. They are concerned about health care. They deserve to have the President talk to them like everyone else on these same key issues. I think that's the essence of it…”
On MSNBC, Rev. Al Sharpton: “I thought it was a very good speech. I thought that he really made some very key points… But I also think where he listed things like the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, the Voting Rights Act, specific things about how Black unemployment is down in terms of record unemployment, so it was a substantive speech and inspirational. It was at a place that many of us see as sacred ground, Martin Luther King Jr. came from Morehouse, among many others. I thought it was the place to do it.”
On MSNBC, Eddie Glaude Jr.: “And I thought he did a wonderful job, obviously, I would. I thought the framing…around Friday, you know, the crucifixion, and Sunday, the resurrection, and Saturday Christians. What did he mean by focusing on Saturday? That is, we're in this difficult moment, this moment that there seems no way out and then he uses that as a way of framing graduation on Sunday. I thought it was, I thought it was well done.”
On Scripps News, Antjun Seawright: “The President overperformed the narrative that preexisted before the speech. No other president in the history of this country could have shown up to Morehouse, or for that matter, any other historical Black college or university in the country and talked about work that they had done in a three-year period, and in some cases an eight-year period to to invest into historical Black colleges and universities but also the students that graduate from those institutions, $16 billion dollars, and for many of the alumni paying off all of their debt when it comes to student loans, $160 billion dollars. Not to mention more HBCU graduates going in this administration than ever before. I think the President showed up with the story to tell, I think it was a good contrast and comparison when it comes to where the former president was and the type of speech and rhetoric he was, I think, issuing to the American people. And this spoke to the needs, concerns, fears and hopes and aspirations of those students but it also addressed some of the long-term systemic things that Black people and Black men have been facing for a very long time. So it made Joe Bide relatable to the Black experience, showing up at Morehouse on Saturday with his words and with his deeds, in our community, we call it ‘receipts.’”
