While out for lunch near Seattle on Sunday, April Berg and her girlfriends’ cell phones started ringing at the same time.
“We thought someone was dead,” he said.
Rather, it was reported that President Joe Biden had withdrawn from the presidential race. Moments later, he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee to succeed him. A normal 90-minute meeting for Berg and his friends lasted about four hours.
“It made for a very spicy conversation,” said Black, a Democrat and Washington state representative.
Berg and millions of black voters were instrumental in Biden’s victory in 2020, especially in key states like Georgia. In his 2020 victory speech, Biden thanked black voters and said he would do what was right by them. Throughout his presidency, the Biden administration noted achievements such as reducing child poverty, which particularly affects black families, and appointing Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.
But while the majority of black voters continued to support Biden, Black supported him In general. Now that he’s not seeking re-election, black people across the country interviewed by NBC News expressed reactions to Biden’s decision ranging from joy to disappointment to uncertainty. But they agreed that Biden has accomplished several meaningful things in office and that Harris would be a worthy choice to take his place at the top of the ticket.
Biden’s decision pleased Berg and the breakfast crowd as they now see a way to defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump.
With the pandemic and racial justice protests in 2020, Biden said he was “the right man at the right time.” “And then he got Kamala Harris as his vice president, and at the announcement, he broke into Mary J. Blige’s ‘Work.’ I think a lot of black women, like me, felt very visible at that moment. And Joe Biden created that moment.”
She and her friends were okay with Biden dropping out, she said, but not because of him his meandering argument He spoke on June 27. “I don’t know that I could point to anything specific where I would say, ‘Oh, he should have come out.’ I just think in general that everything changed after that night.
Leslie Neland, an Atlanta entrepreneur, said defeating Trump is even more urgent, with her 23-year-old son recently sharing that he was “scared and overwhelmed” when Trump became president. “I am and continue to be racist. But when it affected my son, the fact that this man can’t be president again became even more apparent to me,” Neland said.
“Joe Biden has done a wonderful job for the country,” he added, referring to Biden’s policies. Child Tax CreditDetermining how to cut black child poverty and more A black woman will become a federal judge (38 including Brown Jackson) more than any other president.
“And so much more, including amazing Support of HBCUs and takes us through Covid after Trump. So I’m a fan of Joe Biden,” Neland added. “It bothers me that so many black people don’t realize all that he did.”
Maurice Hawkins, a political volunteer in Norfolk, Virginia, said some blacks are disillusioned with Biden because “we’re all fed up with systemic racism. No man can change hearts and minds. But Biden changed the policy in favor of blacks and put us on a promising path.”
Biden’s rough debate performance in June was the reason Calls from Democratic figures are mounting for him to pull aside. Christine Beatty, a nonprofit political consultant in Detroit, said that creates a controversial situation.
“I think he’s fired and I’m not happy about it,” Beatty said. “I think he withstood the pressure. The man solved the issues for the country which is our issue. He lowered unemployment; work is our problem too, isn’t it? He saw us through the Covid crisis; this was our problem. He brought the economy back. This is our issue. There is no separation. The most critical issues in this country affect us, and affect us the most. So he did a fantastic job. And he would continue to do so.”
Except for 59 black federal judges he nominated at-large (men and women), Hawkins also noted Biden’s other notable appointments, including Linda Thomas-Greenfield as ambassador to the United Nations and Lloyd Austin as secretary of defense.
“He has one of the most diverse cabinets in the history of the American presidency. And in politics, he’s been fantastic,” Hawkins said. Hawkins, who campaigned for the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020, said he was “saddened” and “disappointed” to see Biden leave.
But about half an hour later, she learned that Biden was endorsing Harris, and “I went from that uncertainty to certainty, and then to excitement at the prospect of our country electing our first female president, the first African-American female president, the first woman from Southeast Asia. descent.”
“So you can’t be happy to see someone like him go,” Hawkins said. “But Kamala Harris is the next best thing.”
Neland, an Atlanta entrepreneur, agreed with Biden’s decision to endorse Harris, “because Kamala can defeat Trump and that’s the No. 1 goal — not put him back in power. Kamala Harris is capable and she will find the right people around her, not just as a one woman show.
Beatty, who like Harris is a graduate of Howard University, said the vice president is a logical choice to succeed Biden.
“Bringing in another candidate at this late date would be too divisive in the Democratic Party,” he said. “Over Black VP? You would have to file a lawsuit and I don’t think there is a case to be made. And as we know, black women are the backbone of the Democratic Party. When it’s time to go out and produce, that’s what we do.”
That path could be paved by Harris, said William Ratcliff, a retired project manager in suburban Phoenix who also disputed Biden’s forced ouster.
“But I see the strategy,” he said. “Kamala is younger, he’s a fighter, he’s smart and he can energize the base, which, to be honest, has been pretty bad so far.”
According to him, this energy is necessary to defeat Trump.
“Since he’s such a threat to democracy and decency, something had to happen to get us to victory,” Ratcliff said. “Joe Biden did his job and he did it well. Now it’s up to the Democratic Party to rally behind Vice President Harris. If we finally come together as a party, we’ll celebrate in November — and not cry.
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