In Detroit NAACP speech, Biden warns ‘unhinged’ Trump is looking for ‘revenge’ in 2024

President Joe Biden attends the Detroit NAACP's annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner in Detroit, Mich., on May 19, 2024. (Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

This story originally appeared on Michigan Advance.

President Joe Biden told a crowd in Detroit on Sunday night that former President Donald Trump is seeking reelection not to lead the country, but for “revenge.”

“Trump isn’t running to lead America. He’s running for revenge. And revenge is no way to lead a country,” Biden said at the Detroit NAACP’s 69th annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner. “You can’t build a future on revenge.”

Biden reminded voters of the state of the country when he inherited it in 2021, when COVID-19 vaccines were just becoming available, offering some security after months of a global pandemic that had claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

“Trump is trying to make the country forget just how dark things were when he was president,” Biden said. “We’ll never forget him lying about how serious the pandemic was, telling Americans to inject bleach. I think that’s what he did, that’s why he’s so screwy.”

But should Trump be reelected, Biden said a second term would lead to worse outcomes and more political violence, pointing to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

“Folks, the threat that Trump poses is greater in the second term than the first. It’s clear when he lost in 2020, and I mean this sincerely, something snapped in Trump. He just can’t accept that he lost. … He’s not only obsessed with losing 2020; he’s clearly unhinged.”

Biden received a lifetime achievement award at the dinner. Retiring U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, also headlined the event.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly; Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Attorney General Dana Nessel, U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Twp. and House Speaker Joe Tate, D-Detroit, were among those who also attended.

As has been the case at Biden events in Michigan since the Israel-Hamas war broke out in October, pro-Palestinian protesters lined up outside Huntington Place, where the NAACP dinner took place.

Demonstrators held up Palestinian flags and signs, including, “No Aid to Israel! Victory to the Palestinian Struggle” and “Blood on Your Hands, Joe.”

Earlier on Sunday, Biden gave the commencement address at Morehouse College, a historically Black college in Atlanta.

With Biden sitting nearby, valedictorian Deangelo Jeremiah Fletcher called for the release of all hostages and for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

“It is only right for the class of 2024 to utilize any platform provided to stand in solidarity with peace and justice,” Fletcher said in his speech.

Biden clapped and then greeted Fletcher with a handshake as the graduate left the stage and later addressed the issue in his speech, saying there is a “humanitarian crisis in Gaza.” He renewed his call for an immediate ceasefire and said he is actively working to find a solution.

“It’s one of the hardest, most complicated problems in the world. There’s nothing easy about it,” Biden said to the graduates. “I know it angers and frustrates many of you, including my family. But most of all, I know it breaks your heart. It breaks mine, as well.

“Leadership is about fighting through the most intractable problems. It’s about challenging anger, frustration, and heartbreak to find a solution. It’s about doing what you believe is right, even when it’s hard and lonely,” he said.

Biden told attendees at the Detroit NAACP’s dinner that “you’re the reason Donald Trump is the defeated former president, and you’re the reason Donald Trump is going to be a loser again.”

In 2020, 95% of Black women and 87% of Black men voted for Biden, according to the Pew Research Center. But recent polling suggests Biden’s support among Black men may be slipping.

Biden held two events in Detroit, running the gamut in size from the NAACP event, which organizers said is the largest sit-down dinner of its kind in the country, to an intimate meeting with Black voters at the CRED Café in Detroit.

Biden spoke briefly at the café, owned by former NBA players Joseph Crawford and Jordan Crawford, before spending around 30 minutes mingling with attendees to hear from them directly.

“We were definitely already locked in on Joe Biden’s views, but getting a chance to meet him and come to where we were brought up gave us a sense of personality,” Joseph Crawford told the Advance in an interview afterward.

“The importance of him coming here and supporting small businesses and the things that we’re trying to do here, as far as employing local people, I think it was very important meeting him and seeing the person in person rather than hearing all the news clips,” added Willie Mac Jr., who also met the president.

Biden told voters at both events about his long history with civil rights, jumping into politics after being inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., noting that Delaware has the eighth largest African American population in the country as a percentage of population.

“My name’s Joe Biden and I’m a lifetime member of the NAACP. Matter of fact, the first organization I ever joined was the NAACP,” Biden said. “You didn’t get to vote until you were 21 in those days, but I got involved in civil rights when I was 15.”

Biden touted several achievements — from nominating the first Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, to reconnecting Black neighborhoods that were cut off by highways — but warned that policy achievements in areas like healthcare and climate change could be rolled back if Trump gets a second term.

Jordan Crawford said events like the one at CRED Café, which received a grant for renovations through Motor City Match under the American Rescue Plan Act, help the president to highlight those achievements and get his message out to Black voters.

“People look for the big headlines, so they don’t really realize all the policies that actually help people, like the Motor City Match,” Crawford said. “We were lucky enough to benefit from that, and with him coming here, we get to relay that message.”

Biden said that in a second term, he would seek to pass major voting rights legislation and would be prepared for the possibility of nominating Supreme Court justices, should a vacancy arise, who could end up hearing cases on major issues related to race, democracy, reproductive freedoms and more.

“The idea of America is that we’re all created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives. We’ve never fully lived up to it; we’ve never fully walked away from it, either,” Biden said. “But Trump will – I will not. We just have to remember who we are: We’re the United States of America, and there’s nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together.”

Georgia Recorder reporters Ross Williams, Stanley Dunlap and Jill Nowlin contributed to this story.

Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and Twitter.

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