Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Friday voters “ain’t black” if they cast their ballots for President Donald Trump. Republican Sen. Tim Scott, the first African-American senator from South Carolina, had a few words for the former vice president.
Biden made the comments during an appearance on “The Breakfast Club” radio show with host Charlamagne tha God.
“Well, I tell you, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or for Trump, then you ain’t black,” he told Charlamagne after the host pressured him to choose a black woman as his running mate because “black people saved your political life in the primaries this year” and “have things they want from you.”
In response, Scott pointed out 1.3 million black Americans voted for Trump in 2016. Biden, he continued, “told every single one of us we ‘ain’t black.’”
“I’d say I’m surprised,” he continued, “but it’s sadly par for the course for Democrats to take the black community for granted and brow beat those that don’t agree.”
Stacey Abrams, the woman who lost Georgia’s gubernatorial race in 2018 and has continually argued the election was unfair, has for weeks been pushing herself as the best choice to be Biden’s running mate.
“We have to win the election,” Abrams, who is African-American, told The Atlantic. “And I would point out that I ran the most successful campaign to engage the communities we need to build the broadest coalition necessary in 2020, because what we are going to see on the ground is that this is going to be a campaign unlike anything that’s been run before.”
Ultimately, Biden told Charlamagne he is “not acknowledging” anybody being considered for veep, but conceded there are “multiple black women” on his list of possible running mates.
As for Scott, during an interview last month with Faithwire, the Republican senator praised the way the Trump administration has handled the coronavirus pandemic.
“The one thing that’s crystal clear is the administration’s response has been really positive,” said Scott, noting he was working with the president’s team on how to best disseminate more information about the virus to those in the African-American community.
The 54-year-old Scott, who is a Christian, said he is hopeful about the future.
“From the foundation of this nation to this pandemic,” he said, “the one place we’ve always turned when the chips were down, when everything was going to be counted, we turned to the Lord, the author and finisher of our faith.”