WS Chronicle

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent

A sincere and open former Vice President Joe Biden spoke candidly to the Black Press during an interview with Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA).

The Democrat, who famously hails from Delaware, laid out an aggressive agenda that he said would undo the severe damage President Trump has inflicted upon communities of color and the poor.

“I come from a state where we have the eighth-largest black population in America, and we have a lot in common with South Carolina in a sense that we were part of Brown v. Board of Education,” said Biden.

“I got started in the African American community. I got involved in the Civil Rights Movement when I was a kid. I helped de-segregate a movie theater, that kind of thing,” Biden noted. “I was the only guy who worked in the projects on the East Side who was white. That’s how I got started, and the black community is the community that, as we say, ‘brung me to the dance.’ That’s how I got elected.”

Biden opined that the black vote would likely determine the next president.

“It’s going to be the determining factor in who the nominee is going to be, and I hope that means who the next president is going to be,” Biden pronounced.

As president, Biden pledges to invest $640 billion over ten years to ensure everyone has access to affordable and stable housing and says that he would hold financial institutions accountable for discriminatory practices in the housing market.

 “Americans lack quality, affordable housing. Communities of color are disproportionately impacted by the failures in our housing markets, with homeownership rates for black and Latinos falling far below the rate for white people,” Biden stated.

Biden will immediately move to undo many of Trump’s executive orders, including the current administration’s cuts to social services.

“It’s immoral,” Biden stated. “Look what this president has done. Cut $1 billion from all social safety nets, reduced Medicaid and food stamps.”

He said access to affordable health care is paramount and would be a primary goal of a Biden administration.

Without affordable health insurance, Biden said every community is put in jeopardy, particularly the African American community.

Health care is also personal for the Biden family, he noted.

“I’ve been a significant consumer of healthcare,” he said, noting that his first wife and a daughter were killed in an automobile accident. Years later, Biden’s son, Beau, would die of brain cancer.

“I know what it’s like. My son was dying … I will make sure that no insurance company can say ‘suffer in peace, you’ve run out of coverage.’ I guarantee you, I will treat your health care as if it were my own family. I had enormous help and I think of all the people who got up and put one foot in front of the other. They deserve the help. This is personal.”

Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent