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Jimmy Williams
President Joe Biden delivered his first major speech since the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, addressing the NAACP’s national convention in Las Vegas. He used the occasion to call for a reduction in political hostility while launching a series of policy-focused criticisms against Trump.
“It is a tense moment just a few days after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump,” Biden began. “We’re grateful he was not seriously injured. We continue to pray for him and his family. It’s time for an important conversation in this country.”
Biden stressed the importance of reducing political tension and condemned violence unequivocally. “Our politics has gotten too heated,” he said. “As I’ve said in the Oval Office on Sunday night, as I’ve made clear throughout my presidency, we all have responsibilities to lower the temperature and condemn violence in any form. You gotta remember, in America we’re not enemies, we’re friends, we’re neighbors.”
Despite his call for calm, Biden didn’t hold back in criticizing Trump’s policies and record. “Just because you must lower the temperature… doesn’t mean we should stop telling the truth of who you are, what you’ve done, what you’ll do,” he said.
Biden used the recent shooting as a segue into a passionate condemnation of gun violence in America. “More children in America died of gunshot wounds than any other reason. That is stunning and that is sick,” he said, nearly shouting to emphasize the severity of the issue.
He also detailed his administration’s accomplishments, particularly for Black Americans, highlighting the economic recovery and low unemployment rates. “Just think about where the Black community was when I came into office. Think about how far the Black community has come. We still got a long way to go,” Biden said. “COVID no longer controls our lives. Our economy has not figuratively, literally, the strongest economy in the world; historic low Black unemployment, record growth of black small business. Let me say this again, because Trump is lying like hell about it. Black unemployment hit a record low under Biden-Harris administration.”
Biden refrained from personal attacks on Trump but focused on the former president’s policy decisions. “As Harry Truman said, ‘I’ve never deliberately given anyone hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell,’” Biden said. “That’s what I’m gonna do. Well, here’s the truth about why Donald Trump’s presidency was hell for Black Americans.”
He criticized Trump’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, his tax cuts, which benefitted the wealthy, and his pandemic policies, which Biden argued were “especially devastating to Black communities.”
Capitalizing on Trump’s comment in a recent debate about “Black jobs,” Biden quipped, “Folks, I know what a Black job is: it’s the Vice President of the United States! I know what a Black job is: the first Black president in American history, Barack Obama!” The audience responded with enthusiastic applause.
In a notable endorsement, Biden said of Vice President Kamala Harris, “And by the way, she’s not only a great vice president, she could be president of the United States.”
Biden also criticized Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, and linked him to Project 2025. “They’re lying about their Project 2025. They want to deny your freedom: the freedom to vote, have your vote counted. They’d impose a nationwide ban on abortion. His new vice president, if you ever had any doubt, man, just take a look at what he’s been saying. They want to prosecute their political enemies, they want to cut Social Security and Medicare.”
During his speech, Biden also announced a proposal to cap rent increases at 5%, although he initially misspoke, stating the cap as “no more than 55 dollars” before correcting himself later.
Reflecting on the scrutiny he has faced, Biden invoked Harry Truman, saying, “Harry Truman was a president who was often counted out. He was also known for something else. The story goes, Truman said, ‘You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog.’ Well, guess what? Last couple weeks – after the last couple weeks, I know what he means.”
The president’s address was met with enthusiastic support from the attendees, who cheered, “Four more years!” Shavon Arline-Bradley, president and chief executive of the National Council of Negro Women, emphasized the critical role of Black women in the upcoming election. “In the spirit of Bethune and Height this morning,” she said, referencing civil rights icons Mary McLeod Bethune and Dr. Dorothy Height, “we are here to light under the feet of this country and say, ‘not on our watch.’”
“Black women, we’re going to do our part to save democracy again. We’re going to have women on the ballot, again. We’re going to organize the voters again,” Arline-Bradley continued. “And Black women we will never be silenced ever, ever, ever again.”
