The Coronavirus Campaign continues. By this time in 2016, primary season was coming to a close. This year, a long list of state primaries, postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, remain to be held.
There is, of course, little drama remaining as to who will be nominated. Joe Biden is the only remaining candidate on the Democratic side and barring something completely unforeseen, he will be the Democratic nominee. Donald Trump never had a serious challenger for the Republican nomination.
But the significance of an interrupted primary season lies in the fact that there have been no campaign events. Ordinarily, Biden and Trump would be holding rallies – particularly in states that can be characterized as “battlegrounds” – that is to say, are not sure things for either candidate in the Electoral College.
That relegates both Biden and Trump to making news from their respective home bases. For President Trump, that home base is the White House. For Joe Biden, it’s the basement of his Delaware home.
Biden did, indeed, make news from his basement this past week. Appearing on “The Breakfast Club,” a New York-based morning radio show that is syndicated to urban-formatted stations across the country, Biden let loose one of his trademark gaffes. As the interview was wrapping up, the host invited Biden to come back saying, “It’s a long way to November, we got more questions…” Biden responded by saying,
You got more questions. Well I’ll tell you, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, you ain’t black.”
Reaction was swift. Fox News’s Peter Doocy sums it up in this report.
At first, a Biden aid said, ‘that was a joke.’ But hours after the interview aired, Biden walked it back, telling black business leaders, ‘I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy. I shouldn’t have been so cavalier.’ This is already a cultural issue for Diddy, who tweets, ‘Joe Biden, I already told you hashtag, the black vote ain’t free. Hizzoner of Black Entertainment Television calls it, “The arrogant and out of touch attitude of a paternalistic white candidate who has the audacity to tell black people, the descendants of slaves, that they are not black unless they vote for him.’ The interviewer [on The Breakfast Club] Charlemagne tha god, tells Mediaite, ‘We have been loyal to Democrats for a long time. Black people have invested a lot into that party and the return on investment has not been great.’”
For his part, President Trump has challenged North Carolina governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, to assure the Republican Party that the GOP will be able to hold its convention in Charlotte in August without crippling coronavirus restrictions. Said the president,
We’re talking about a very short period of time. It’s a massive expenditure. And we have to know, yeah, I’d say within a week. Certainly we have to know. Now if he can’t do it, if he feels he’s not going to do it, all he has to do is tell us, and then we’ll have to pick another location.”
As we say almost every day, it’s a presidential campaign like none we have ever seen.