The media panic over the unraveling of the 2020 Biden coalition and the disgust of each of its constituent member groups continues apace. NBC News has now taken notice of Biden’s declining support among the black community, and contrasted it with yesterday’s speech at Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Watch as, after briefly (very briefly) touching on Biden’s speech wherein he was heckled by pro-Hamas protesters, correspondent Gabe Gutierrez got to the heart of the matter and addressed the purest, truest victim of this entire set of adverse circumstances- the electoral prospects of Joe Biden:
GABE GUTIERREZ: The president's visit comes as his support among black voters is slipping. In 2020 he carried 92% of that group. But a recent NBC News poll shows just 61% would now choose him over a Republican.
Do you think that the Biden administration is taking the black vote for granted?
FLETCHER SMITH: Yes. His staff is.
GUTIERREZ: Fletcher Smith worked with the Biden campaign in 2020. Now, he says he's very concerned about black voters staying home this November.
SMITH: That administration looks like they don't want the black vote. I mean, you've got to speak to the black people.
GUTIERREZ: Maurice Washington is a conservative who thinks the president focusing on threats to democracy won't work.
MAURICE WASHINGTON: It has nothing to do with bringing the country together.
GUTIERREZ: We spoke with a group of voters who want the president to do more on student debt relief and police reform.
VOTER 1: I just feel like it's been a lot of broken promises.
VOTER 2: I think the main issue for me right now is feeling like I am a priority for the people that are in charge.
VOTER 3: It's clear based on what the people are asking for that he's not here to serve us.
GUTIERREZ: The Biden campaign insists the president has taken action on those issues. The question now, Lester: will voters give him credit for it.
HOLT: All right. Gabe Gutierrez, thank you.
Will black voters give Biden the credit for all the action he’s taken, is Gabe Gutierrez’ exit question, in a tone that leaves one unsure of whether that was a question or a demand.
The report comes on the heels of a series wherein the networks each sent correspondents to Dearborn, Michigan and filed virtually identical reports on the collective disgust of the Arab community in the face of Biden’s response to the Israel-Hamas war. It was, therefore, quite fitting for the broader report to include the portion of the speech where Biden was heckled by pro-Hamas protesters.
I find it notable that NBC only devoted 36 seconds to Biden’s big campaign speech before shifting to his loss of support among black voters, and that should tell you exactly where we are in terms of the extent to which the media are alarmed.
Gutierrez quickly pivoted off of the speech and to a Biden-adverse poll showing him with a 30-point decline amongst the black community, before speaking to several voters who expressed varying degrees of feeling taken for granted.
The report tracks with last night’s segment on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, which panned the speech and knocked Biden as being out of touch with younger voters. Contrast this quote from Joy Reid with the statements of the younger voters interviewed by Gutierrez, and you see a clear pattern:
JOY REID: For black voters of a certain age, he's their guy. They're the ones who delivered him the nomination and they're still with him. Then you go under 50, under 40, under 30, you start to see a different story, and then you see some other communities who don't necessarily feel the love.
Biden’s not exactly feeling the love, either, from a cornerstone member of the Democrat coalition. And this terrifies the media.
Click “expand” to view the the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on NBC Nightly News on Monday, January 8th, 2024:
LESTER HOLT: With polls showing some black voters turning away from president Biden, today he made a direct appeal at the church where a brutal act of racial violence took place nine years ago. Gabe Gutierrez reports from South Carolina.
[ Crowd chanting "Four more years" ]
GABE GUTIERREZ: At Charleston's Mother Emmanuel A.M.E. Church, President Biden today honored nine black worshippers massacred in 2015 by a white supremacist.
JOE BIDEN: This is a poison, throughout our history, that’s ripped this nation apart. This has no place in America.
GUTIERREZ: The president, forcefully trying to link racial violence to the nation's current divisions.
PROTESTERS: Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now!
BIDEN: That’s all right…
GUTIERREZ: But his speech briefly interrupted by protesters calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
PROTESTERS: Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now!
GUTIERREZ: Another sign of deep divisions among some Democrats. The president's visit comes as his support among black voters is slipping. In 2020 he carried 92% of that group. But a recent NBC News poll shows just 61% would now choose him over a Republican.
Do you think that the Biden administration is taking the black vote for granted?
FLETCHER SMITH: Yes. His staff is.
GUTIERREZ: Fletcher Smith worked with the Biden campaign in 2020. Now, he says he's very concerned about black voters staying home this November.
SMITH: That administration looks like they don't want the black vote. I mean, you've got to speak to the black people.
GUTIERREZ: Maurice Washington is a conservative who thinks the president focusing on threats to democracy won't work.
MAURICE WASHINGTON: It has nothing to do with bringing the country together.
GUTIERREZ: We spoke with a group of voters who want the president to do more on student debt relief and police reform.
VOTER 1: I just feel like it's been a lot of broken promises.
VOTER 2: I think the main issue for me right now is feeling like I am a priority for the people that are in charge.
VOTER 3: It's clear based on what the people are asking for that he's not here to serve us.
GUTIERREZ: The Biden campaign insists the president has taken action on those issues. The question now, Lester: will voters give him credit for it.
HOLT: All right. Gabe Gutierrez, thank you.
