Former Vice President Joe Biden Addresses Pressing Issues with Black and Hispanic Journalists at Virtual Convention

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | MEDIA CONTACT: MIKE WOOLFOLK, PRESS@NABJ.ORG

Eager to address issues confronting the African American and Hispanic American communities in the United States,  presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden addressed attendees of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) joint virtual convention in a pre-recorded, remote interview session.

Recorded on Tuesday, August 4, Errol Barnett of CBS News, Lulu Garcia-Navarro of NPR, Tia Mitchell of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Alfredo Corchado of the Dallas Morning News questioned the former vice president covering several topics in the 55-minute Newsmaker Plenary session of the NABJ-NAHJ Virtual Convention.

Issues discussed included the COVID-19 pandemic, health care disparities, criminal justice reform, ending construction of the border wall, and voter suppression, among others.

The presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee said his approach to dealing with the COVID-19 recovery would depend on what President Donald Trump leaves him.  

“If I were president today, I would roll back the reopenings in a number of places because… it’s clear, masks and social distancing make a gigantic difference in terms of the spread of this disease,” said Biden. “It’s simple, it’s factual, it’s real.”

On what the pandemic has exposed about healthcare inequities, Biden said the quickest way for Black and Latino Americans to have coverage is to have access to Obamacare with a public option.  He does not believe a Medicare-for-all bill will pass Congress and disagrees that the pandemic and massive amount of subsequent layoffs show the limits of private health care tied to employment.

“There’s countries that have, in fact, single-payer systems that haven’t helped them very much,” said Biden. “Everyone who’s affected by the pandemic (should have) access to free care for anything having to do with that pandemic.”

The former vice president also says his campaign has a “strong, effective voter protection and anti-voter suppression program.” “No campaign has ever built anything to the scale that we’ve built to make sure we can get out to vote,” said Biden.

In his closing, Mr. Biden said we can provide millions of good-paying jobs and grow the economy. “We’ve always led the world… not by the example of our power, but the power of our example,” he said.  “We’re being devastated all around the world. We can change that. I know how to do that. That’s what I’ve done my whole life.” 

President Donald Trump was also invited to participate in the Newsmaker Plenary.  However, the White House did not accept or decline that invitation.

“While we are disappointed that President Donald Trump has not acknowledged our invitation to participate, we hope he will come to understand the importance of addressing and engaging with the voices and documentarians of the communities that represent the future of America,” said organization presidents Dorothy Tucker and Hugo Balta in a joint statement.

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