'Don't focus on the drama in D.C.,' second gentleman Doug Emhoff says
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff asked voters to ignore the "drama" in Washington, D.C., and throw their support behind President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the months leading up to the election.
Emhoff’s stop in the Phoenix area Friday came as Harris' name continued to surface on lists of speculative candidates to replace President Joe Biden as the Democratic challenger in November to Republican nominee former President Donald Trump.
"This is real. Don't focus on the drama in D.C. It's just drama," Emhoff said. "We've got to focus on winning this election. We've won here before in Arizona."
“Joe Biden has had our backs, so we need to have his back right now and let’s make sure we get Joe Biden and Kamala Harris reelected,” he said.
Biden's campaign chair said on an MSNBC interview on Friday that the president was still in the race and planned to continue his campaign next week after he recovers from COVID-19.
Emhoff last visited Phoenix a few months ago, and Harris is also a familiar face in Arizona. She visited the state last month, and a half-dozen other times since she took office.
He addressed nearly 40 Black voters during his visit first stop Friday at the Arizona Black Chamber of Commerce. Georgia Rep. Nikema Williams, Phoenix City Councilmember Kesha Hodge Washington, and Arizona Young Democrats President Armonee Jackson joined Emhoff for a roundtable discussion.
Emhoff made additional stops in Tempe to tour the Valley Metro Streecar Line to promote the Biden-Harris administration's efforts to improve public transportation.
He didn't waste any time in his speech before criticizing Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance and Trump’s remarks on Thursday evening at the Republican National Convention.
“If you watched what I tried to get through last night – his so-called 'unity' speech by the former president – I am just outraged, I am outraged by the lies and the gaslighting,” Emhoff said Friday. “Look at the guy that he picked. An extremist and an opportunist. This is the guy who wants no exceptions at all to abortion – not even for incest or rape. That’s JD Vance.
"So we already know what it was like the first time. He didn't care about us, terrible economy, incompetence, COVID-19, insurrection, and now you've got Project 2025. That's their platform," he said.
Emhoff’s remarks also focused on drawing Black voter support. Black Americans are the third-largest bloc of eligible voters in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center.
Most single-race Black and non-Hispanic voters, around 92%, cast their ballot in 2020 for Biden.
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'We are better off in the Biden administration'
Amid concerns from some Democratic lawmakers on Biden’s candidacy, Black voters at the event Friday overwhelmingly held their support for his campaign.
Ashley Hodge, a Roosevelt Elementary School District board member, said voters should choose Biden because he has support behind him, including from Harris.
“As Black people, we are better off in the Biden administration in terms of economic empowerment. That means a lot of things — being able to allow out families to advance and create generational wealth, which is truly important to me,” Hodge said. “In south Phoenix in particular, we need to invest more so that our families can thrive.”
Phoenix voter Valerie Johnson said Democrats’ calls for Biden to exit the race weren’t something she was concerned about.
Johnson and her business partner Brayonna Harris recently received a federal $3 million grant to build an early childhood learning center. The Small Business Administration, which awarded their grant, reported 17 million new business applications filed during the Biden-Harris Administration.
“He has a vice president — why are we worried about that?” Johnson said. “I’m not afraid of it. They’re saying, ‘We are all saying this,’ but they haven’t asked me. So how is everybody saying this? I don’t believe it.”
Emhoff also made stops at a new Biden-Harris campaign office that just opened in north Phoenix on Friday afternoon. Along with other Democrats, he pumped up dozens of voters who were packed into in the office.
Texas U.S. House Rep. Jasmine Crockett spoke before Emhoff, giving her support to the Biden-Harris campaign. Arizona State Sen. Christine Marsh of Phoenix also spoke.
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Later in the day, Emhoff planned to attend the WNBA All-Star Weekend Skills Challenge and 3-Point Contest at the Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix.
Sue Campbell, 54, of Phoenix, said she came to see Emhoff to get pumped up for the election. She said she wasn't impressed with Trump's speech at the RNC.
"We need to stay focused," Sue said. "I think that Biden has done a great job so far. I'm not backing away from him."
Neill McDill, 76, of Phoenix, said he was a registered Republican for more than 50 years until 2018, when he became an Independent and started volunteering for Democratic campaigns. He said everything that the Biden administration has done over the past four years has gotten lost with concerns about the president's age.
"I am 76 years old, so I am not a spring chicken. The fact that Biden has had some gaffes is obvious. You can't hide from that," he said. "I am afraid that he is stubborn and doesn't want to give it up."
Republicans respond, decry 'Bidenomics agenda'
Janiyah Thomas of the Trump campaign offered a response to Emhoff: "President Trump's economic policies offered more generational wealth for Black families. By reducing regulations, implementing tax cuts, lowering inflation, and creating quality jobs, his administration created a more favorable environment for entrepreneurship and job growth in our communities.
"We cannot overlook that Biden's policies are driving Black families deeper into poverty and making them less safe."
Conservative group Citizens for Free Enterprise also responded, saying Biden's "cognitive decline and the disastrous 'Bidenomics' agenda" has failed Arizonans.
"Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff are complicit in this scandal — they've had a front row seat to Biden's decline and, instead of being honest, they chose to gaslight the American people. Allowing this to go on isn't just cruel to a man clearly struggling with the aging process, it's downright dangerous for the millions of Americans who have been hurt by the Biden economy," Citizens for Free Enterprise spokesperson Jesse Hunt said.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Second gentleman Doug Emhoff asks AZ voters not to focus on 'D.C. drama'
