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Black voters and organizers in battleground states say they’re anxious about enthusiasm for Biden
Earlier this week, Rev. Greg Lewis, an assistant pastor at St. Gabriel’s Church of God In Christ in Milwaukee, physically carried one of his parishioners to the polls inside the city’s Midtown early voting center to cast a ballot in Wisconsin’s upcoming Democratic primary. Supported by crutches and the pastor himself, the disabled man was one of many residents Lewis has helped vote this cycle.
Through his nonprofit, Souls to the Polls, Lewis has been coordinating multi-church early voting campaign drives after services on Sundays, encouraging more Black residents to vote.
“They are the difference makers,” Lewis said on Monday.
President Biden’s winning coalition in 2020 was led by Black voters, particularly in major cities in battleground states. But this time around, there are signs that his support among this bloc of voters has softened. A CBS News poll in late February showed 76% of likely Black voters said they backed his reelection bid, down from 87% who voted for him in 2020.
The more than a dozen Black voters and organizers interviewed by CBS News in battleground states have shared a sense of disappointment about the impending rematch of the 2020 presidential election, with worries it will translate to voters staying home in November.
They credit Mr. Biden’s policies and legislative record, but say there have been difficulties in effectively communicating his successes to voters.
And while the president has just wrapped a post-State of the Union tour of every battleground state, they want him to appear in bigger, more accessible venues. They also want him to meet more frequently with Black groups and organizations in Black communities.
“He’s getting there. He just needs to be in Georgia more and let the people see him get out,” said Tina Metcalf, a former educator who saw Mr. Biden speak in Atlanta recently.
Concerns about voter apathy, messaging and representation
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In January, Karen Weaver, the former mayor of Flint, Michigan, attended a virtual meeting between Black women leaders and Biden campaign leadership. The women shared concerns about the Biden campaign’s representation of Black women in leadership and surrogate roles, and the effectiveness of communicating the administration’s record.
Weaver and Holli Holliday, who is the president of the group Sisters Lead Sisters Vote and organized the meeting, said those concerns remain.
“People are saying, ‘OK, well, now, what have they done again?’ That shouldn’t be a question that people are asking. That message ought to be loud and clear,” Weaver said.
“We need to have messengers and people affiliated with the campaign that can speak to these different audiences. And it’s going to be more than the president and vice president,” Holliday said. “Mis[information] and disinformation has continually made the electorate less trustful of elected officials.”
In response to calls for more Black women in campaign leadership, a Biden spokesperson said they have hired Black women “to lead vital programs at both the national and state level – this includes leading our national voter protection and access efforts, as well as serving as leaders in key states.”
In a focus group of voters organized by BlackPAC, a left-leaning political action committee dedicated to mobilizing Black voters, initial sentiments toward Mr. Biden were largely negative. After learning about policy changes spearheaded by the Biden administration, specifically student loan forgiveness and a cap on insulin prices, many shifted their perspective.
“We’re hearing while [Black voters] are excited about some of the policy initiatives, they haven’t felt them. That’s one of the challenges of making big, long-term policy, is it doesn’t have that immediate effect,” said Quentin James, the founder of the Collective PAC, the largest political action committee supporting Black candidates.
Battleground state party officials and organizers say highlighting the binary choice between Mr. Biden and former President Donald Trump, in addition to the White House’s record, is key to energizing voters.
“It’s still relatively early in the campaign,” Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia said Sunday on “Face the Nation.” “I think that at the end of day Black voters, Georgia voters, will see that this is a binary choice. And the more Donald Trump talks, the better our fortunes will be.”
The Biden campaign’s outreach
Following his State of the Union speech, Mr. Biden’s campaign ramped up its battleground state travel, infrastructure and outreach to key voting blocs. As part of a $30 million ad buy in March, the campaign launched multiple ads targeting Black voters in the battleground states.
“As bad as Trump was, his economy was worse. And Black America felt it the most,” Mr. Biden says to the camera in one ad.
In August 2023, the Biden campaign announced a $25 million advertising campaign that included targeting voters through Black-owned media, such as “The Shade Room” media company.
“It’s not one of those campaigns which we feel is parachuting in at the last minute. They are coming here repeatedly and they are focused on talking to Black voters,” said Angela Lang, the founder of Black Leaders Organizing Communities in Milwaukee.
Deputy Biden campaign manager Quentin Fulks told CBS News that the campaign has made “historic investments to engage Black voters directly and reach folks where they are, earn every vote, and ensure voters are aware of how President Biden and Vice President Harris have delivered for them.”
He said the campaign saw Black communities turn out in high numbers during the primaries “because they understand the stakes of this election.”
Republicans see an opening
While Mr. Biden still captures the majority of Black voters in polling, Trump has slightly increased his support with the voting bloc.
Republicans have looked to capitalize on that opening by casting a wide net of messaging. In March, Trump’s super PAC MAGA Inc. launched radio ads targeted toward Black voters in Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania. The ads were focused on transgender policies and immigration. In speeches, Trump often argues the economy was better and touts Black unemployment numbers during his term.
Mikail Stewart-Saadiq, a director for the Michigan Muslim Community Council in Detroit, said he’s seen “a lot” of young Black men “drinking the MAGA juice.”
“They don’t see themselves as being full-fledged, card-carrying members of American society. Things push us to the fringes. The Republican Party, some of the MAGA rhetoric, is capitalizing on that sentiment,” said Stewart-Saadiq, who organized in 2020 for Biden’s campaign.
Mr. Biden, his campaign and White House officials have denounced as “racist” some of Trump’s recent remarks, such as when he suggested in a February speech that Black voters can relate to his mugshot.
Organizers said they believe the choice between the two candidates will become clearer as the campaign ramps up.
“The Trump situation is just headed downhill fast,” said Holliday, of Sisters Lead Sisters Vote. “This is a case of, we’re doing OK, and they’re doing so damn awful.”
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Sen. Duckworth says Trump defense secretary pick is “flat-out wrong” about women in combat roles
Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth said Sunday that Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary is “flat-out wrong” in his view that women should not serve in the military in combat roles.
“Our military could not go to war without the women who wear this uniform,” Duckworth said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” “And frankly, America’s daughters are just as capable of defending liberty and freedom as her sons.”
Trump tapped Hegseth, a former Fox News host and Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as his pick to head the Defense Department earlier this month. The 44-year-old has drawn criticism for his stance on women in combat roles, along with his level of experience.
Duckworth, who in 2004 deployed to Iraq as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot and sustained severe injuries when her helicopter was hit by an RPG, outlined that women who serve in combat roles have met the same standards as men, passing rigorous testing. She said Hegseth’s position “just shows his lack of understanding of where our military is,” while arguing that he’s “inordinately unqualified for the position.”
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“Our military could not go to war without the 220,000-plus women who serve in uniform,” Duckworth said. She added that having women in the military “does make us more effective, does make us more lethal.”
Hegseth has also drawn scrutiny amid recently unearthed details about an investigation into an alleged sexual assault in 2017. Hegseth denies the allegation and characterized the incident as a consensual encounter. The Monterey County district attorney’s office declined to file charges as none were “supported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt.” His lawyer has acknowledged that Hegseth paid a confidential financial settlement to the woman out of concern that the allegation would jeopardize his employment.
Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat who serves on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, said it’s “really troubling” that Trump would nominate someone who “has admitted that he’s paid off a victim who has claimed rape allegations against him.”
“This is not the kind of person you want to lead the Department of Defense,” she added.
The comments come after Trump announced a slew of picks for top posts in his administration in recent days. Meanwhile, one pick — former Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general — has already withdrawn his name from consideration after he faced intense scrutiny amid a House Ethics Committee investigation and a tenuous path to Senate confirmation.
While Duckworth acknowledged that she’s glad her Senate Republicans “held the line” on Gaetz and also elected Sen. John Thune as leader over a candidate favored by many in Trump’s orbit, she said she’s “deeply concerned” her Republican colleagues will green light Trump’s nominees.
“From what I’m hearing from my Republican colleagues on everything from defense secretary to other posts, it sounds like they are ready to roll over for Mr. Trump,” Duckworth said.
But Duckworth didn’t rule out supporting some of the nominees herself during the Senate confirmation process, pledged to evaluate each candidate based on their ability to do the job, and their willingness to put the needs of the American people before “a retribution campaign for Mr. Trump.”
Meanwhile, a CBS News poll released on Sunday found that 33% of Americans say Hegseth is a “good choice” for defense secretary, including 64% of Trump voters. But 39% of Americans said they hadn’t heard enough yet about the pick. More broadly, Americans generally say they want Trump to appoint people who’ll speak their minds and who have experience in the field or agency they’ll run.
Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who also appeared on “Face the Nation” on Sunday, said he believes that Hegseth can run the massive Defense Department, despite his lack of experience managing a large organization. Though he did not address Hegseth’s comments about women in combat roles, Paul said he believes the “vast majority of people” support leaders who are picked based on merit, citing Hegseth’s criticism of the Pentagon for what he says has been a move away from merit-based hiring and toward hiring based on “racial characteristics.”
Hezbollah fired at least 185 rockets and other projectiles into Israel on Sunday, wounding seven people in the militant group’s heaviest barrage in several days, in response to deadly Israeli strikes in Beirut while negotiators pressed on with cease-fire efforts to halt the war.
Meanwhile, an Israeli strike on a Lebanese army center killed one soldier and wounded 18 others on the southwestern coastal road between Tyre and Naqoura, Lebanon’s military said. Israel’s military expressed regret and said the strike occurred in an area of combat against Hezbollah, adding that its operations are directed solely against the militants. The strike was under review.
Hussein Malla / AP
Israeli strikes have killed over 40 Lebanese troops since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, even as Lebanon’s military has largely kept to the sidelines.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned it as an assault on U.S.-led cease-fire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.
“(Israel is) again writing in Lebanese blood a brazen rejection of the solution that is being discussed,” a statement from his office read.
The strike occurred in southwestern Lebanon on the coastal road between Tyre and Naqoura, where there has been heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.
Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes since the rocket fire began, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war, as Israel launched waves of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.
Hezbollah fired a total of around 160 rockets and other projectiles into Israel on Sunday, some of which were intercepted, the Israeli military said.
Oded Balilty / AP
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it was treating two people in the central city of Petah Tikva, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast and a 70-year-old woman suffering from smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire. The first responders said they treated three other people in northern Israel, closer to the border, including a 60-year-old man in serious condition.
It was unclear whether the injuries and damage were caused by the rockets or interceptors.
Israeli airstrikes early Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 20 people and wounding 66, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.
On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardments in northern Israel and in battle following Israel’s ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country’s north.
The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a cease-fire, and U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein was back in the region last week.
The European Union’s top diplomat called for more pressure on both Israel and Hezbollah to reach a deal, saying one was “pending with a final agreement from the Israeli government.”
Josep Borrell spoke Sunday after meeting with Mikati and Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who has been mediating with the group.
Borrell said the EU is ready to allocate 200 million euros ($208m) to assist the Lebanese military, which would deploy additional forces to the south.
The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol the area, with the presence of U.N. peacekeepers.
Lebanon’s army reflects the religious diversity of the country and is respected as a national institution, but it does not have the military capability to impose its will on Hezbollah or resist Israel’s invasion.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth says Pete Hegseth is “flat-out wrong” about women in combat roles
Sen. Duckworth says Trump defense secretary pick is “flat-out wrong” about women in combat roles
Israeli strike kills Lebanese soldier as Hezbollah fires at least 185 rockets at Israel
Sen. Tammy Duckworth says Pete Hegseth is “flat-out wrong” about women in combat roles
Sen. Duckworth says Trump defense secretary pick is “flat-out wrong” about women in combat roles