At most only a few dozen ever come, but they’re following President Joe Biden almost everywhere.
On Friday near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania – as the president was inside giving a searing speech warning that American democracy might collapse if he doesn’t beat Donald Trump – a group of pro-Palestinian protestors stood on a patch of grass outside ticking through rhyming chants like, “Hey hey, ho ho, genocide Joe has got to go!”
On Monday at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Biden was in the middle of remembering the nine congregants gunned down by a White supremacist in 2015 – quoting the Bible about truth and light being a path out of the darkness – when three people (two White, one Black) stood in a middle pew chanting, “Ceasefire now!”
“If you really care about the lives lost here, then you should honor the lives lost and call for a ceasefire in Palestine!” one of the women called out.
A speech meant to tie the legacy of White supremacy after the Civil War to Trump by calling 2020 election denialism “the Second Lost Cause” and promote his record of achievements for Black Americans suddenly had to detour into international diplomacy and one of the thorniest issues he has faced in office.
Biden campaign aides weren’t surprised. They figured this would be coming. They know this will keep coming, whether outside the White House or interrupting fundraising events or just dogging him along the trail. Indeed, before the president arrived, the pastor of the church – anticipating protests himself – had admonished the crowd that he expected people to be respectful of the space. Junior operatives working the event had already clocked these particular protesters over an hour before they stood up.
While Biden aides downplay the protests’ significance, what many leading…
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