US President Joe Biden on Monday denounced white supremacy and political violence in a direct message to Black voters during a visit to South Carolina aimed at shoring up a critical constituency whose support has waned since he took office.
Biden spoke from the pulpit of the historic Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, where avowed white supremacist Dylann Roof gunned down nine Black parishioners in 2015.
The Democratic president continued to sharpen his attacks on former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican Party's 2024 nomination, while hailing his administration's efforts to reduce inflation, drive Black unemployment down and combat housing discrimination.
Describing the 2015 attack at the church, Biden said: "The word of God was pierced by bullets of hate and rage propelled by not just gunpowder, but by a poison. Poison that has for too long haunted this nation. And what is that poison? White supremacy ... This has no place in America — not today, tomorrow or ever."
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Biden described Trump as a threat to democracy, citing the deadly attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters in 2021 hoping to overturn the Republican's election loss.
"That violent mob was whipped up by lies from a defeated former president," Biden said. "His actions were among the worst dereliction of duty of any president in American history."
Trump failed to concede the 2020 election or acknowledge the votes of millions, Biden said, despite dozens of court cases affirming Biden's victory.
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