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President Joe Biden condemned ‘racism, extremism, insurrection’ during remarks at Ebenezer Baptist Church to mark the 94th birthday of slain civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Biden is the first acting commander-in-chief to deliver a Sunday sermon at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, the congregation once co-led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
He delivered a politically charged speech in which he commented on King’s legacy and referenced stories and Bible verses, all while repeating his oft-used statement that Americans are in ‘a battle for the soul of our nation.’ .
The president also insisted several times on the importance of democracy and lamented the ‘collapse’ of the ‘institutional structures’ in the US, and referred to the recent riots in Brasilia.
Biden’s appearance in front of a friendly audience in Georgia comes amid mounting scrutiny from both sides of the aisle in Washington, DC over his handling of classified files.
President Joe Biden became the first acting commander-in-chief to deliver a Sunday sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church, once led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Biden’s speech came amid rapidly escalating scrutiny over his handling of classified documents found at his Wilmington, Delaware, home and at a DC think tank where he used to have a private office.
The church service appeared to be packed and both incumbent Georgia senators attended.
“This is a moment of choice: direct elections that we have,” Biden said from the pulpit. ‘Is it so do we have people who choose democracy over autocracy?’
‘I couldn’t ask that question 15 years ago, we thought democracy was established, not for our African Americans, but democracy as an institutional structure was established. But is not.’
King’s mission, Biden said, was to “redeem the soul of America.”
Invoking the Bible, he urged Americans to be ‘doers of the word.’
“The battle for the soul of this nation is perennial,” he said. It is a constant fight.
“It is a constant struggle between hope and fear, kindness and cruelty, justice and injustice, against those who traffic in racism, extremism and insurrection.”
At another point, Biden again contrasted what people thought were established views of government structures during the King era against current uncertainty amid the slow advance of authoritarianism around the world.
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who has been senior pastor at Ebenezer for 17 years, introduced Biden to the pulpit on Sunday.
The president crossed his arms with several people, including Warnock and White House adviser Keisha Lance Bottoms, as he sang “We Shall Overcome” to end the service.
“I doubt any of us would have thought, even in Dr. King’s time, that the institutional structures of this country could literally collapse,” the president said grimly. ‘How we are seen in Brazil, how we are seen in other parts of the world’.
He repeated that the country was at a ‘tipping point’ and added, ‘we know there is a lot of work to be done on economic justice, civil rights, voting rights, protecting our democracy.’
Biden was introduced by Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who has been the church’s senior pastor since 2005.
The service ended with Biden and Warnock, linked arm in arm with several other people, singing ‘We Shall Overcome’.
King was co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church from 1960 until 1968, when he was assassinated by fugitive James Earl Ray.
White House senior adviser Keisha Lance Bottoms, a former Atlanta mayor, said ahead of her trip: “The president will speak on a number of issues in the church, including the importance of us having access to our democracy.”
Martin Luther King Jr. helped lead the congregation as co-pastor from 1960 until he was assassinated in 1968
The president reflects on the legacy of the slain civil rights icon on what would have been his 93rd birthday.
It comes amid a growing crisis for his presidency over multiple disclosures of classified documents found at his Delaware home and a former office of his in Washington, DC.
The White House admitted on Saturday that five classified pages were found at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, after disclosing the existence of one earlier this week.
Ten were found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a think tank where Biden used a private office from 2017 until he ran for president in 2020.
Biden hasn’t been to Georgia since January of last year, having stayed away from the Peach State during its tense midterm elections.
A little over a month ago, Warnock clinched his first full term in the US Senate, narrowly beating out Donald Trump-backed Republican soccer star Herschel Walker in a runoff in early December.
Pedestrians walk near the 20-foot-tall bronze sculpture “The Embrace,” a memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, on the Boston Common, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, in Boston.
The president, whose job approval rating has hovered in the low 40s and even dipped into the high 30s at times, gave the Peach State a wide berth while making appearances in battlegrounds like Wisconsin and Colorado.
Biden’s last appearance in Georgia was on January 11, 2022.
The president had delivered a fiery speech about the need to pass voting rights legislation in Congress.
He lashed out at Senate Republicans and called on the House to abolish the filibuster, which would have allowed Democrats to pass laws with only their simple majority.
But the push to end the filibuster ultimately failed after opposition from conservative Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
Consequently, the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act never made it to Biden’s desk.
His speech at the time sparked outrage from Republican opponents of voting rights legislation, after the president compared those critics to the infamous racists George Wallace and Jefferson Davis.