With his once reliable support among Black voters appearing to waver, President Joe Biden delivered the commencement address at Morehouse College over the weekend.
Students at the all-male, historically Black college raised their fists, turned their backs, and, in some cases, walked out of the event to protest the Biden administration’s policies in the wake of the October 7 terror attack on Israel. But those who stayed were met with pandering, racially charged remarks.
On Tuesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Bill Maher, author of What This Comedian Said Will Shock You, to discuss the embarrassing speech and why the Democrats are struggling to win over minority voters.
Biden’s Speech
With Election Day approaching and the polls not in his favor, Biden was tapped to deliver the commencement address at the Atlanta men’s college that counts Martin Luther King, Jr. as an alumnus. “First of all, the fact that they are giving an honorary degree to Joe Biden… [when] the list of racist comments that guy has made is as long as Santa’s scroll,” Megyn noted. “But okay, fine.”
During his 27-minute address to the 414 graduates, Biden suggested Black people cannot succeed in America today. Here’s a flavor:
BIDEN: You started college just as George Floyd was murdered and there was a reckoning on race. It’s not to the wonder if democracy you hear about actually works for you. What is democracy if Black men are being killed in the street? What is democracy if the trail of broken promises still leave Black communities behind? What is democracy if you have to be 10-times better than anyone else to get a fair shot? Most of all, what does it mean, as you’ve heard before, to be a Black man who loves his country, even if it doesn’t love him back in equal measure…
Well, that’s my commitment to you. To show you democracy, democracy, democracy is still the way. If Black men are being killed on the street, we bear witness. For me, that means the call out the poison of white supremacy, root out systemic racism. I stood up for George– with George Floyd’s family to help create a country where you don’t need to have that talk with your son or grandson as they get pulled over…
In Megyn’s view, the message was “disgusting” but expected. “It was the most pandering, absurd picture of Blacks in America… and America’s relation to our Black population,” she said. “It was like he was trying to stir up racial hatred right there live… but it is not unusual for him.”
Maher called Biden’s depiction of the U.S. today “anachronistic” and disingenuous. “It’s not that there isn’t still racism in this country… and we should always be mindful of that and do what we can to call it out,” he explained. “But it’s a very different country than it was even 10 years ago and to be telling Black students that you have to be 10-times better to get ahead… that’s not the case… Can we just live in the year we are living in because that doesn’t really reflect it?”
Lucky to Live Here
It is incidents like this, Maher said, that illustrate why the Republican Party – under Donald Trump – has made inroads with minority voters. “Democrats should be asking themselves: Why does Trump each election do better, not worse with minorities and immigrants,” he said. “[Trump] did better in 2020 than 2016 and seems to be doing better this time. That’s a question Democrats really need to look in the mirror and ask themselves.”
In the case of immigrants, Maher said he was willing to save them the trouble and provide the answer. “Immigrants don’t like it that the left seems to have this unrelenting negativity toward the country that these immigrants worked so hard to get to,” he shared. “When Trump says ‘sh-thole,’ I think a lot of them are going, ‘Yeah… it is a sh-thole where I came from. Why do you think I got on the ocean on a raft or walked 1,000 miles’… There are places that are sh-tty in this world and the immigrants know it.”
Regardless of what Biden or the left may say, America is still the ‘city upon a hill’ for so many. “It is not corny or conservative,” he concluded, “to say that you should acknowledge that you are lucky if you are living in this country at this moment in history.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Maher by tuning in to episode 797 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.