The official Black Lives Matter movement is apparently unhappy with former Vice President Joe Biden after learning that reportedly none of the movement's leaders were invited to a relevant meeting Tuesday with the leader.
The organization tweeted Wednesday, "Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Rep. Cedric Richmond met with several civil rights groups yesterday. @blklivesmatter — as the largest social justice movement in history — was not invited."
Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Rep. Cedric Richmond met with several civil rights groups yesterday.@blklivesmatter… https://t.co/thTR05at8S— Black Lives Matter (@Black Lives Matter)1607557120.0
The group later added, "The night of their victory, we sent @joebiden and @kamalaharris a letter requesting a meeting. It has now been 32 days and we have yet to receive a response. To set up a meeting with civil rights leaders, without BLM, is unacceptable."
The organization insisted that it deserves a "seat at the table," and displayed a petition calling for Biden and Harris to meet with the group.
We deserve a seat at the table. The 63,747 people who signed our petition want us there too.Sign our petition bel… https://t.co/vv3YRGaiew— Black Lives Matter (@Black Lives Matter)1607557122.0
The group was unhappy that they were apparently left out of the meeting following Biden's announcement that Richmond, a Louisiana Democrat, would lead the White House Office of Public Engagement.
According to a Politico report, the meeting — which took place virtually on Tuesday — addressed administration positions, as well as the type of attorney general Biden should nominate to head up the Justice Department.
From Politico:
The conversation was centered on racial justice and equity — racial equity is among the four pillars Biden laid out as top priorities on his transition website. Race was also a key issue in the presidential election, as Americans all over the country took to the streets to protest racial injustice amid a pandemic that has disproportionately affected black and brown communities. Plus, black voters not only saved Biden's presidential primary campaign but also helped elevate him to the White House in November.
The meeting, according to the outlet, centered on topics such as voting rights, judges, criminal justice reform, equality, and executive appointments.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, according to the outlet, recalled telling Biden during a news conference, "You cannot respond by not having an attorney general that has a background in civil rights. My preference, I said to him, is to have a black attorney general. ... I said, however, the least we could have is someone that has a proven civil rights background, not someone that's gonna handle this heightened, racist, bigoted atmosphere with on-the-job training."
New polls released this week from battleground states crucial to the November election may show President Donald Trump gaining momentum against former Vice President and Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Polling from Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, and Michigan shows Trump and Biden statistically tied. This marks an improvement for Trump, who has previously trailed behind Biden in surveys from these states, which collectively represent 90 Electoral College votes up for grabs on Nov. 3.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll published Wednesday shows Trump leading Biden 51% to 47% among likely voters in Florida, Fox News reported. The poll also has Trump with a 1-point lead over Biden in Arizona. The sampling error of both polls is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points, placing the differentials within the margin for error, meaning Trump and Biden are statistically tied in this survey.
A Monmouth University poll also released Wednesday has Trump leading Biden 48% to 46% in Georgia in a high likely voter turnout model. This 2-point differential is within the survey's 4.9% margin of error, again a statistical tie. In the poll's low-turnout model, Trump leads Biden 50% to 45% among likely voters.
A poll of likely voters in Michigan conducted by the Republican polling firm Trafalgar Group and released Thursday finds Trump narrowly leading Biden 46.7% to 46%. The margin of error for this poll is 2.99%.
Lastly, a Quinnipiac poll of likely voters in Ohio found Biden leading Trump by 1 point, 48% to 47%. The margin for error of this poll is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
As always with analyzing political polling, it is important to remember that polls do not predict election results. These statistical ties do not necessarily mean the election will be close to a tie in these states. Polls are snapshots of a sample of the electorate at whatever time the poll was taken. One poll released at a given time may be an outlier compared to other polls taken of the same state. It is bad practice to extrapolate electoral results from a single poll, or even a handful of polls, but polling is useful for showing trends, whether a candidate is gaining or losing support over time.
Additionally, keep in mind that polls of likely voters cannot be compared to polls of registered voters. They are different samples of the electorate that will yield different results.
Previous polls of these battleground states catalogued by RealClearPolitics show Biden with wider margins over Trump, with the exception of Georgia.
In Arizona, Biden was leading Trump among likely voters by as much as 9 points in a Fox News poll taken from Aug. 29 to Sept. 1. Other polls from CBS News or Monmouth taken earlier in September showed Biden with a narrow 2- or 3-point lead over Trump. The ABC News/Washington Post poll released this week is the first poll to show Trump with a lead over Biden among likely voters since a Trafalgar poll conducted in early August. The RCP average of polls for Arizona shows Biden with a 3.2-point lead over Trump, which hovers in the margin of error for most of the polls released.
There's a similar story in Florida, where Biden was leading or tied with Trump in the vast majority of likely voter polls conducted in July, August, and so far in September. Trump has only outright led one poll in Florida before Wednesday, and that was again a Trafalgar poll from Sept. 1 to Sept. 3.
In Michigan, Biden has enjoyed wider leads anywhere from 4 points to 8 points over Trump consistently among likely voters through August and September. The outlier is another poll from Trafalgar taken from Aug. 14 - Aug. 23 which showed Trump with a 2-point lead over Biden. Given that Trafalgar is the only polling firm showing Trump with a lead in Michigan since April, some may write the poll off as an outlier.
It is worth noting, however, that the Trafalgar Group was the only pollster to correctly predict Donald Trump was leading in Michigan and Pennsylvania in 2016. A Trafalgar poll of Michigan likely voters in June found Biden with a 1-point lead over Trump, again within the margin for error.
There have only been three other likely voter polls of Ohio recorded by RCP, and of those three two Rassmusen polls show Biden with a 4-point lead over Trump and a CBS News poll had Trump with a 1-point lead.
Polling from Georgia tells a slightly different story. Consistent polling of likely voters in Georgia began in earnest in July and of nine polls recorded by RCP, Trump led five, Biden led two, and two were tied. Trump's highest leads were 7 points in a Trafalgar poll taken in July and a WSB-TV poll taken at the end of August. Since then, a University of Georgia poll and a New York Times/Siena poll showed tied results. Trump's most recent 2-point lead, still being within the margin for error, suggests he's lost some ground in September since his high water mark among likely voters in August.
The bottom line is the 2020 presidential election in these battleground states is extremely competitive, with most recent polls showing Trump and Biden running neck-and-neck.
Ohio and Georgia are both competitive with trend lines showing statistical ties.
Trump appears to be gaining momentum in Arizona and Florida, where previous polls showed Biden holding a wider lead over Trump.
The Trafalgar poll in Michigan is good news for the Trump campaign, but one poll alone, even by a pollster who was right in 2016, is not enough to definitively say he is leading. If, however, more polling continues to show Biden's lead in the margin for error, don't be shocked if Trump carries the state again.
Ultimately there are more factors to a campaign's victory or defeat than leading or being tied in the polls. Elections are determined by voter enthusiasm, campaign operations to drive voter turn-out, and occasionally disruptive political events no one can predict. These polls won't tell you who's winning the presidential election.
But they're not bad news for the Trump campaign.
Ahead of the first official presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio, on Sept. 29, President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday he is not intensely preparing for the debate, saying he is "sort of" preparing to face Democratic nominee Joe Biden, whom Trump called "mentally lost."
In an interview on Fox News, the president was asked about his preparation strategy for the upcoming debate, which will be moderated by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace. Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt asked Trump if he has memorized Biden's voting record in the U.S. Senate or held mock debates with members of his staff.
"I sort of prepare every day, by just doing what I'm doing," the president said, noting his travel across the country for the campaign.
"I've been all over the place, and I watch [Biden] sitting home, and I say, maybe I'm doing it wrong."
Asked what the greatest challenge would be heading into the debate, Trump said he's not sure how Biden will perform.
"I don't know which Biden is going to show up, because I watched him during the debates, when they had 20 people on the stage … and I watched him and he was a disaster," Trump said, referring to Biden's debate performance in the Democratic primary. "You don't get worse. He was grossly incompetent."
"Then I watched him against Bernie, and he was OK, he wasn't Winston Churchill, I can tell you that, but he was OK, he was fine," Trump said.
According to a recent report from NBC News, the president has eschewed traditional debate preparations, declining to hold mock debates or practice sessions with aides and confidently asserting that his natural ability to debate doesn't require practice.
"It's not the traditional, 'we need Chris Christie to fill in and play Hillary Clinton' like we did four years ago," a source reportedly familiar with the president's strategy told NBC News. Instead of rehearsing scripted one-liners, President Trump reportedly plans to use a few talking points but doesn't want to be told what to say.
"I think if you ask the president, he would say that he is preparing for debates by running the country, as president," Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told NBC News. "I think the way that he sets himself apart from Joe Biden is to talk about his record."
For his part, Biden has publicly expressed an eagerness to face Trump, telling ABC News' David Muir in late August, "I can hardly wait." Biden has also said he plans to be a "fact checker" against Trump and told donors at a fundraiser, "I hope I don't take the bait" on the debate stage.
"I hope I don't get baited into a brawl with this guy, because that's the only place he's comfortable," Biden said.
Expect Trump to instigate exactly the kind of brawl Biden wants to avoid, particularly over Biden's mental acuity. Recently, the president has, without evidence, accused Biden of taking performance-enhancing drugs during the Democratic primary debates. Trump has also called for each candidate to take drug tests before debating.
Trump repeated this claim on Fox, suggesting Biden did "that kind of stuff" before his debate with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
"What did he do? What happened to him all of a sudden? Because he was OK, and Bernie was OK, it was an extraordinarily boring debate, but he got through it," Trump said. "And I said, what's the difference between now and some of those classic moments in the other debates, and something was strange in my opinion."
"I won't say what, but a lot of people think something happens, and you can't do that kind of stuff. You just can't do that kind of stuff," he added. Trump said he would take a drug test ahead of the debate before criticizing Biden's performance and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).
"I've seen him in the debate with the other people, including Kamala, and nobody treated him worse than Kamala, he picked Kamala and nobody treated him worse, called him a racist … and Kamala has her own problems, I mean, she went from 15 down to nothing, she dropped out before they got to Iowa. I think she's not a good choice, compared to Mike Pence, who's been a great vice president," he said.
"Joe is lost, Joe is lost. We can't have a president that's mentally lost," Trump said.
The Biden campaign has denied the accusations that the former vice president used performance-enhancing drugs during any of the Democratic primary debates.
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