President Joe Biden was interrupted by protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza during his pilgrimage to a church in Charleston, S.C., to appeal to black voters as part of his campaign against Donald Trump.
Calling ‘ceasefire now,’ the group interrupted the president as he was speaking on Monday about his ties to the Mother Emanuel AME Church, the historically Black church in Charleston where nine people were killed after a gunman opened fire on a Bible study group in 2015.
‘If you really care about the lives lost here you should honor the lives lost and call for a ceasefire in Palestine,’ one protester yelled, setting off a repeated chant of ‘ceasefire now.’
The crowd in the church yelled back ‘four more years’ in an attempt to overshadow the protest, which lasted about 45 seconds. The protest came as fears grow about a wider war in the Middle East that could engulf U.S. troops. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in region to try and bring down the tone.
President Joe Biden was interrupted by protesters during his speech at Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston
‘Ceasefire now,’ the protesters yelled during Biden’s speech
Biden addressed the matter after the crowd calmed down, offering reassurances he was working to get hostages out of Gaza.
‘Look folks I undertsand their passion. I’ve been quietly working…I’ve been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza. I’m using all that I can to do that. But I understand the passion,’ he said.
The president was in South Carolina for a campaign speech where he attacked Trump’s role on January 6th, the day a mob took over the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of Biden’s 2020 presidential victory.
He also blasted his GOP rival for refusing to concede the last presidential election.
‘Losers are taught to concede when they lose and he’s a loser,’ Biden said of the former president.
He also bashed Trump and his supporters for attempting to rewrite the facts of January 6 and the Civil War.
‘They tried to steal an election, now they’re trying to steal history by telling us that violent mob was and I quote, a peaceful protest,’ Biden said.
Trump’s ‘actions were among the worst dereliction of duty by any president in American history,’ Biden charged.
He also attacked Nikki Haley for not listing slavery when she was asked about the causes of the Civil War and mocked Trump for suggesting the conflict could have been avoided by negotiations.
‘Slavery was the cause of the Civil War. There’s no negotiation about that,’ he said to applause.
Trump leads the polls for the Republican presidential nomination. GOP voters will begin their nominating contest later this month with the Iowa caucuses taking place next Monday.
His speech also contained personal touches. Biden recalled his family’s own pain from loss, choking up as he spoke about the loss of his son Beau.
‘We were in more pain than we knew,’ he said.
Biden lost his oldest son to brain cancer about a month before the shootings at the church in 2015. He talked about how the family found comfort in the church after their loss.
‘We came here to offer comfort. We receive comfort from you,’ he said.
During Biden’s remarks, the pews were filled by survivors and the families of the victims of the 2015 shooting, as well as clergy and interfaith leaders.
The crowd shouted ‘four more years’ repeatedly when the president got up to speak.
‘It’s going to go to my head,’ Biden joked in response.
The president met with survivors and the families of those killed in the shooting after his remarks.
Biden is the first sitting president to speak at the historic church. His visit comes at a time when polls indicate he is losing support among black voters.
‘I’ve done my best to honor your trust. That means rejecting the small, narrow, cramped view of America, as well as lifting up a bigger and broader view of America,’ Biden told the crowd.
He also listed off his accomplishments including his work to heal the economy, making Juneteenth a federal holiday, and naming a black woman to the Supreme Court.
‘We’ve come to far from where we started. Nobody told me the road would be easy,’ he said. ‘I don’t think the good Lord brought us this far to leave us behind.’
Protesters in the church interrupted President Biden for about 45 seconds
South Carolina Democratic Representative Jim Clyburn introduced Biden at the church
South Carolina, where African Americans make up about 60 percent of the Democratic electorate, hosts the party’s first-in-the-nation primary on Feb. 3.
In the 2020 Democratic primary, Biden’s victory in South Carolina, won largely thanks to black voters, set him on the path to the Democratic nomination.
Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, an early Biden supporter who propelled him to victory in South Carolina, said he is ‘very concerned’ with the president’s standing with the black community.
‘I’m not worried — I’m very concerned,’ he told CNN ahead of Biden’s visit.
‘My problem is that we have not been able to break through that MAGA wall in order to get to people exactly what this president has done,’ Clyburn said.
Clyburn introduced Biden at the church on Monday. In his remarks, Clyburn emphasized what Biden has done for the black community including student loan forgiveness and appointing a black woman as a justice on the Supreme Court.
Biden has gone after Trump heavily behind closed doors in fundraising, slamming him for his invoking of Nazi-type speech and charging him with being the reason Roe vs. Wade was overturned, rolling back abortion rights in many states.
But with the start of the new year, he’s been taking his criticism public.
Trump leads Biden in the polls. The margin is close but Trump’s lead has been steady. In the RealClearPolitics polling average on the general election, Trump has a 2 point lead.
More worryingly, Trump was beating Biden in two key voter groups, giving him an overall lead in the presidential race, the first new poll of 2024 found.
Trump leads Biden among Hispanic voters by five points, 39%-34% and among younger voters by three points, 37%-34%, according to a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll.
Biden won both those voting groups in the 2020 presidential contest, where he defeated Trump to win the White House.
The poll also shows Biden is losing support among black voters, another key voting bloc.
He now has the support of just 63% of black voters, a group he carried by a whooping 87% in 2020.
The president’s trip to South Carolina on Monday will be his fourth as president as he looks to court the highly-important voting bloc.
His last trip to Mother Emanuel was almost nine years ago, in the spring of 2015.
About a month days before the shootings, his oldest son Beau died of brain cancer. He and Jill Biden were vacation on Kiawah Island, just outside of Charleston, when the shootings occurred.
The Bidens – he was then vice president – attended the memorial service for the victims where President Barack Obama spoke.
The then-vice president also addressed the congregation.
‘No words can mend a broken heart, no music can fill a gaping void,’ he said then. ‘Sometimes even faith leaves you, just for a second, sometimes you doubt.’
