Critics on social media dragged President Biden over video footage showing what appeared to be a small showing of supporters greeting the president’s motorcade in the deep blue city of Atlanta, where he held a fundraising event and delivered Morehouse College’s commencement speech.
“Crooked Joe Biden – dazed and confused, as usual – shuffles down the short stairs in Atlanta ahead of his day of pandering. He ignores questions,” RNC research posted Saturday as Biden landed in the city.
“If a presidential motorcade passes through town but absolutely nobody cares – did it really pass through town?” RNC Research asked in a follow-up question, accompanied by video footage showing largely empty streets dotted with some people filming the motorcade.
Biden held a fundraiser in the expensive Atlanta neighborhood of Buckhead on Saturday, where he lauded Georgia voters as the reason he won against former President Trump in 2020.
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“If you ever doubt the power of the vote, I say come to Georgia. You are the reason I won. Georgia is the reason I’m president right now,” Biden told the supporters at the event, AJC reported.
President Biden greets supporters and volunteers during a campaign event at Mary Mac’s Tea Room in Atlanta, Georgia on May 18, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Footage showing the apparent lack of fanfare over Biden’s motorcade sparked criticisms on social media. Videos circulating online only show short clips of city sidewalks as the president drives by.
“Biden arrived in Georgia to participate in a campaign event, and his motorcade drove through deep blue Atlanta. Nobody cared,” one X user named Julia posted.
President Biden salutes while arriving for an event at the White House, Nov. 27, 2023. (Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Mobs gather in Atlanta to see Joe Biden’s motorcade,” X user Collette Harrington posted tongue in cheek.
“Haha. Man, can Biden draw a crowd. The only people there are waiting to cross the street,” another user wrote, mocking the footage.
“MASSIVE crowd of almost 4 people line the streets as Biden’s motorcade passes through in Atlanta,” another critical tweet read.
President Biden poses for a photo with Morehouse College alumni at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, May 18, 2024. (Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz)
Biden joined supporters at Mary Mac’s Tea Room in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon before heading to the Arthur M. Blank Family Office for the fundraiser.
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President Biden onstage during the 140th Morehouse College commencement ceremony on May 19, 2024, in Atlanta. (Paras Griffin/WireImage via Getty Images)
“You all brung me to the dance,” Biden told supporters at the tea room, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “You really made a gigantic difference.
“It’s easy to forget, but I don’t forget.”
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Biden’s trip to Atlanta has also been marked by protests and outrage – before he even landed in A-Town – when students at Morehouse College sounded off earlier this month that Biden’s commencement speech at the historically Black college was political.
President Biden attends Morehouse College’s graduation ceremony in Atlanta on May 19, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
“The general feeling on the ground is that we don’t want him here,” a student named Malik told WSB-TV in Atlanta earlier this month when Biden’s speech was announced. “It’s very obvious that we’re being used to score political points and get more Black votes. It is so obvious that it’s just about the presidential campaign.”
“We don’t want Biden. We don’t want politics. And we definitely don’t want Biden to come speak politics,” one student said.
Another remarked, “There’s a lot more other prominent figures right now that can come to our colleges and universities and speak to us as Morehouse men.”
Students and faculty also held a protest Friday criticizing the U.S.’s handling of the war in Israel ahead of Biden’s speech.
“I definitely understand from a political aspect why he is coming, but from a human and moral level, it makes no sense for the college to invite him or give him an honorary degree,” Morehouse student Anwar Karim told Channel 2.
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Anti-Israel agitators have carried out protests on college campuses nationwide since last month. Morehouse’s president warned that if disruptive protests broke out on campus Sunday, he would shut down commencement proceedings.
“What we won’t allow is disruptive behavior that prevents the ceremony or services from proceeding, in a manner that those in attendance can partake and enjoy. So, for example, prolonged shouting down of the president as he is speaking. I have also made a decision that we will also not ask police to take individuals out of commencement in zip ties,” Morehouse College President David Thomas said last week. “If faced with the choice, I will cease the ceremonies on the spot if we were to reach that position. But this will not be a place where there will be a national photo op of individuals being taken out of the Morehouse campus in zip ties by the police authorities.”
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Former President Trump speaks with the staff of a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia. (Margo Martin via Storyful)
Biden’s visit to Atlanta comes after a New York Times poll found Trump is leading Biden in a majority of key battleground states, including, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Arizona. Trump’s support among Black voters has also surged, sparking shock from CNN last week when a poll found the 45th president’s support more than doubled to 22% compared to 2020. Biden has seen a 12% drop in support among Black voters, but still holds a 47-point lead.
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Former President Trump throws a kiss to a supporter at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on April 10, 2024. (Reuters/Alyssa Pointer)
Trump also visited Atlanta last month, and was notably surrounded by supporters during his trip – including at a Chick-fil-A, where he bought patrons chicken and milkshakes. He also made a stop for a fundraiser in Buckhead, a neighborhood that tried to secede from Atlanta due to spiraling crime in recent years.
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Dubbed the “Beverly Hills of the South,” residents of the Atlanta district tried to secede from the city in 2021 through last year, as violent crimes such as homicides continued an upward trend, as well as when vehicle thefts and shoplifting spiked.
Supporters of former President Trump wait for his arrival at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on April 10, 2024. (Reuters/Alyssa Pointer)
The effort to secede received support from some local Republican leaders, and notably received the backing of Trump, who railed against “RINO” politicians who did not come to the aid of residents demanding assistance with crime trends.
“What is happening in the City of Atlanta is nothing short of disgraceful. It’s national news and a regional embarrassment. The good people of Buckhead don’t want to be a part of defunding the police and the high crime that’s plaguing their communities,” Trump wrote in February 2022. “However, RINOs like Governor Brian Kemp, the man responsible, along with his puppet master Mitch McConnell, for the loss of two Senate Seats and 2020 Presidential Vote, Lt. Governor Jeff Duncan, Speaker David Ralston, and State Senators Butch Miller, Jeff Mullis, and John Albers always talk a big game but they don’t deliver.”
A large crowd gathers on the beach in Wildwood, New Jersey, to hear former President Trump on May 11, 2024. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
Trump has been tied up in a Manhattan courtroom since last month, facing 34 counts of falsifying business records. The case focuses on the prosecution team working to prove Trump falsified business records 34 times to conceal a $130,000 payment to former pornography star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to quiet her claims of an affair with Trump.
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Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case.
The trial has largely kept him from the campaign trail, but he did hold what has been described as an historic rally in deep blue New Jersey last week, when at least 80,000 supporters joined Trump on the beaches of Wildwood. He is expected to hold his next rally in the Bronx, another historically deep blue area, which will be his first New York rally since 2016.
