Trump Calls Out Biden as 'Nasty and Vicious Racist' at Black Conservative Federation Gala

With the battle for South Carolina drawing to a close Saturday with the state's Republican presidential primary, former president Donald Trump addressed the Black Conservative Federation's gala event in Charleston on Friday evening.

Trump was on hand to make remarks and pick up an award as the "Champion of Black America." But let's back up a little bit first. As my colleague Becky Noble wrote, on Wednesday, President Joe Biden tried to use a fellow Democrat, the late Senator Strom Thurmond, as a cudgel to attack his GOP opponents as racist and anti-democratic:

Appearing at a fundraiser on Wednesday, Joe Biden did what he and Democrats do best: call Republicans racist. Biden remarked that the "current GOP is worse than the 'real racists'" that he served with as a young Senator in the 1970s. He compared today's Republican Party to Sen. Strom Thurmond, who served in the Senate from 1954 until he died in 2003. As a Senator, Thurmond supported several segregationist policies and ran for president on a third-party, pro-segregationist ticket known as the "Dixiecrats" in 1948. At the fundraiser, Biden stated:
I've been a senator since '72. I've served with real racists. I've served with Strom Thurmond. I've served with all these guys that have set terrible records on race. But guess what? These guys are worse. These guys do not believe in basic democratic principles.
Aside from the fact that Joe Biden may have let something slip when he suggested that you could be a segregationist and simultaneously support "basic democratic principles," Joe's remnants of a memory are failing him once again. Not only did Joe "serve" in the Senate with the likes of Thurmond, he palled around with them and eulogized them when they died.

And as Noble pointed out, Biden's own track record on fighting against school integration is nothing to boast about. He championed segregation openly and unapologetically. In his remarks Friday, Trump dinged Biden for his refusal to denounce his racism and association with known racists like Thurmond:

Joe Biden really has proven to be a very nasty and vicious racist. He's been a racist. Whether you like it or don't like it. I happen not to like it. Joe Biden really has proven to be a very nasty and vicious racist. He's been a racist. Whether you like it or don't like it. I happen not to like it. ... Biden spent years palling around with notorious segregationist you know that.

Trump also spoke about his making inroads with Black Americans, stating that many are drawn to support him because they can relate to the unjust prosecution he's been laden with as he runs once again for president:

I got indicted a second time and a third time and a fourth time, and a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against.
I’m being indicted for you, the American people. I’m being indicted for you, the Black population. I am being indicted for a lot of different groups by sick people, these are sick sick people.

He continued:

Some of the greatest evils in our nation's history have come from corrupt systems that try to target and subjugate others to deny them their freedom and to deny them their rights. I think that's why the Black people are so much on my side now because they see what's happening to me happens to them.

In another part of his remarks, Trump mentioned the image of the mug shot, from when he was booked in Fulton County (Georgia), resonates with Black people "more than anybody else":

My mug shot — we’ve all seen the mug shot, and you know who embraced it more than anybody else? The Black population. You see Black people walking around with my mug shot, you know, they do shirts and they sell them for $19 apiece. It’s pretty amazing — millions by the way.

At least one attendee agreed:

Adam Wasolis Sr., 33, from the Bronx, N.Y., said he agreed with Trump's characterization of his appeal to Black voters.
“I definitely understand why some Black men may feel they resonate with his issues, because most of the issues that have plagued black men were legal issues," said Wasolis, who is vice chair of New York Young Republican Black Caucus.

Also appearing at the event were GOP endorsers and campaign trail surrogates, Rep. Byron Donalds (FL), former presidential candidate, Sen. Tim Scott (SC), and Rep. Wesley Hunt (TX). Former GOP presidential candidate (2016) Ben Carson, who most recently served in the Trump Administration as the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary, also took part in the festivities.

Biden simply waving away his past just isn't going to wash, and we need to keep hammering those facts home to anyone who doesn't know about them. Trump sure picked up that ball and ran with it. Good to see.

Stay tuned to RedState for coverage of not only the South Carolina primary on Saturday but Trump's speech at the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).