By BILL BARROW and KAT STAFFORD, Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) — Joe Biden says he “should not have been so cavalier” after he told a prominent Black radio host that African Americans who back President Donald Trump “ain’t Black.”
The rebukes included allies of Trump’s reelection campaign — anxious to go on the offense after weeks of defending the Republican president’s response to the coronavirus pandemic — and some activists who warned that Biden must still court Black voters, even if African Americans overwhelmingly oppose the president.
The host told Biden that Black voters “saved your political life in the primaries” and “have things they want from you.”
Black voters helped resurrect Biden’s campaign in this year’s primaries with a second-place finish in the Nevada caucuses and a resounding win in the South Carolina primary after he’d started with embarrassing finishes in overwhelmingly White Iowa and New Hampshire.
Biden is now seeking to maintain his standing with Black voters while building the type of multiracial and multigenerational coalition that twice elected Barack Obama, whom he served as vice president.
