US President Joe Biden campaigned for the votes of black voters with sharp warnings about his Republican rival Donald Trump. “My predecessor and his extreme MAGA friends are now targeting diversity, equality and inclusion across America,” Biden said on Friday in a speech at the National Museum of African American Culture and History in Washington, alluding to the abbreviation of Trump's slogan “Make America Great Again.”
In his speech at the museum, which was opened in 2016 by then-President Barack Obama, Biden accused the Trump-dominated Republican party of wanting to “erase history.” “They want a country for some, not for all,” Biden continued.
The US President also criticized what he sees as the “extreme” Supreme Court, in which three of the nine judges were nominated by Trump. In recent years, the Supreme Court has made several highly controversial decisions on the right to abortion, diversity laws and the right to vote.
Biden's appearance was the latest in a series of events marking the 70th anniversary of a historic Supreme Court decision that desegregated U.S. schools, and is part of a series of initiatives by Biden to target black voters ahead of the presidential election in November.
This group of voters was crucial to Biden's election victory over Trump in 2020. Recently, however, several polls had indicated that African Americans were turning away from Biden.