Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in Scranton, Pennsylvania Nov. 3, 2020 (Video screenshot)
With polls showing black voters in a historic move toward the Republican presidential candidate, Democratic nominee Joe Biden closed his campaign Tuesday referencing the false claim that prompted him to run for the Oval Office.
Speaking through a bullhorn before a small, parking-lot gathering in the city of his birth, Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden recalled when he "saw those folks come out of those fields down in Charlottesville, carrying those torches ... that's when I decided I had to run."
Biden didn't state on this occasion that President Trump called neo-Nazis and white supremacists "very fine people," but the reference and his meaning were clear: My family told me after Trump's remarks I needed to run to remove a racist from the White House.
However, Vice President Mike Pence refuted what has come to be known as the "Charlottesville lie" during the vice-presidential debate, pointing out Biden running mate Sen. Kamala Harris "conveniently omitted after the president made comments about people on either side of the debate over monuments, he condemned the KKK, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists, and has done so repeatedly."
See Joe Biden's remarks in Scranton on Tuesday:
In one of many occasions in which he repeated the lie, Biden said during his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention that Trump's words in 2017 were "a wake-up call for us as a country" and, for him, "a call to action."
"At that moment, I knew I'd have to run," he said.
In fact, in his remarks on Charlottesville, Trump immediately made it clear he was not talking about "the neo-Nazis and white nationalists," explicitly declaring "they should be condemned totally."
His reference – as a CNN contributor pointed out in a rebuke to his network colleagues – was to the people on both sides of the issue of whether or not to maintain statues of Robert E. Lee and other Confederate figures.
Meanwhile, a growing number of black celebrities and lawmakers are declaring their support for Trump, citing his many accomplishments that directly benefitted African Americans.
Last Thursday, a Rasmussen poll found 31% of likely black voters said that if the election were held today, they would vote for Trump. Other polls indicated closer to 20% of blacks will vote for Trump. A Los Angeles Times poll Thursday had it at 14.6%.
Trump received only 8% of the black vote in 2016, and political analysts have said that if that figure were to double, it could tip the election in his favor.
Rasmussen's daily presidential tracking poll has measured Trump's job-approval rating among blacks as high as 46%.
Trafalgar Group pollster Robert Cahaly, who predicted Trump's 2016 win, said his polling show the vote for Trump among blacks ranges from 9% to more than 30% in states with a large black population. And while mass media polls show Trump with 29% support among Latinos, Cahaly said his polling had the president in a range of 35% to 50% from state to state.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate John James, who has mounted a serious challenge to Democratic incumbent Sen. Gary Peters in Michigan, made the case for black voters supporting Trump in a campaign video.
James said the Democrats' model is "reliant on keeping blacks dependent on the government."
Nothing has changed under Democratic Party leadership in cities with large black populations for 50 years, he said.
"The Democratic Party leadership cares more about the black vote than the black people," he said, "and it's time to wake up."
I was raised by 2 Democrats from the Jim Crow south who taught me that “if God ain’t in it, he ain’t on it.” It’s time to wake up. Neither party is perfect, but neither party will get better if they don’t have to earn our votes and reflect our values. pic.twitter.com/79YZmqGfp7
— John James (@JohnJamesMI) November 2, 2020
Last Wednesday, as WND reported, Flint City Council Vice President Maurice Davis, a lifelong Democrat, explained at a rally in the Michigan city why he's supporting Trump.
A black man, Davis told the crowd at the Flint airport Wednesday, "I'm not an Uncle Tom."
"This is not a game, folks. President Trump, Vice President Pence — God uses whoever he wants to bring his people out of whatever the problem happens to be," he said.
"Right now, the narrative has been spent — President Trump is full of hate. Let me tell you something, the Democrats are full of hate. I'm tired, I've been a Democrat, I am a Democrat, all my life, 64 years," said Davis, the vice president of the city council.
"Last four years I voted for Hillary Clinton. This year I decided to go with President Trump. I'm not a bootlicker, I'm not an Uncle Tom," he said.
Trump has been endorsed by other black Democratic lawmakers, including Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones, who was one of many black speakers at the Republican National Convention in August.
The speakers apparently posed such a challenge to the Democrats' "lock" on the black vote that "Uncle Tom" hashtags trended on Twitter, and a Georgia pastor called the speakers Trump's "slaves."
But the speakers recounted Trump's accomplishments for the black community, including the lowest unemployment rate ever, the prison and criminal sentence-reforming First Step Act, the "opportunity zones" that incentivize investment in poor areas, permanent funding for historically black colleges and universities, and promoting school choice.
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