President Joe Biden recently spoke at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, a predominantly African-American church, about civil rights and the 2024 election. Unfortunately for the president, the speech went less than well, as the president was booed and conservatives on social media called out the falsehoods he spoke during the speech.
As background, the Mother Emanuel AME Church at which Biden spoke is the scene of the 2015 mass shooting in which Dylann Roof attempted to start a race war by killing numerous attendants of the African American church in cold blood.
In any case, Biden was both booed by protesters who appeared at the church and called out for his lied by conservatives on Twitter. The alleged falsehood for which he was primarily called out was that he helped start the civil rights movement at a church in Wilmington, Deleware at which he claims to have spent a good bit of time.
The RNC, posting about the incident on X (formerly Twitter), quoted the incident as saying, “I’ve spent more time in the Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Delaware, than most people I know, black or white, have spent in that church because that’s where I started a civil rights movement…” Commenting on those claims, the RNC said, “None of that is true.”
The White House, for its part, claims Biden said, “I was talking downstairs. I — I’ve spent more time in the Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Delaware, than I have — than most people I know, Black or white, have spent in that church. (Laughter.) Because that’s where I started — no, I’m serious. It started with the Civil Rights Movement. I used to go to 7:30 mass, then I’d go to 10 o’clock cl- — 10 o’clock service with the reverend who was then running the church, who’s now the bishop.”
Continuing, it quotes him as having said, “She’s the bishop. And I’m told your bishop had been there before, in South Africa, because that’s where he is right now. The point is that I’ve been blessed to worship here before as well. You know — you know, it’s — at moments of joy and — great joy and moments of great pain, in moments of unbearable loss.”
Watch that part of the speech here:
That wasn’t the only incident to occur during Biden’s speech. During another part of the speech, the president was interrupted by protesting audience members who called for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza, chanting that they wanted a ceasefire.
That came when Biden was rambling somewhat, saying, “As many of you know, Jim is a teacher and a student of history. He knows the power of history. He knows the power of truth and the power of lies. He knows what happens when people are allowed to whitewash history, erase history, bury history. He knows what the Bible teaches. We shall know the truth, and the truth shall set us free. But the truth — the truth is under assault in America. As a consequence, so is our freedom, our democracy, our very country because, without the truth, there is no light. Without light, there’s no path from this darkness.”
It was then that an audience member yelled, “If you really care about the lives lost here, then you should honor the lives lost and call for a ceasefire in Palestine!” Others started chanting, “Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now!” Biden tried to quiet them down, saying, “That’s all right. That’s all right.” An audience member pressed him, yelling out, “Will you call for a ceasefire?” and others chanted “Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now!”
Watch that here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
