FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ Three top Democratic presidential candidates _ Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders _ converged on South Florida on Thursday as they attempted to get their messages to black voters.
Buttigieg, the first candidate to appear at a forum in Aventura, almost immediately brought up the issue of race. He said it was too "polite" _ and wrong _ to call it a racially charged moment. It is much more, he said.
"The president represents a tremendous challenge and we must call out his racism and his demagoguery," he said.
Asked if he thinks President Donald Trump is a white supremacist, Buttigieg said, "I do."
Systemic racism is "one of the most destructive forces in America," he said. "To be black in America right now is still to be in a different country."
Sanders, appearing second, didn't spend as much time on race.
He ran through a long list of things he said Trump displays: lies, hatred, racism, sexism, homophobia and religious bigotry. "Other than that, I think he is doing a pretty good job."
Sanders devoted most of his time to his platform of changing the nation's economy so that the ultra-wealthy don't have far more wealth than people in the bottom half. He said all his polices such as canceling student death, implementing a Medicare-for-all government healthcare system, reforming criminal justice and raising the minimum wage to $15 would disproportionately benefit blacks.
"Half of African American workers today are making less than $15 an hour. It would be a raise for half of African-American workers," Sanders said.
On Wednesday, Booker spoke at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Charleston, S.C., where a white gunman killed nine black worshipers in 2015, where he decried white supremacy in America.
He continued that theme Thursday in Aventura, where he said white supremacy isn't a new phenomenon. "The truth is white supremacy has always been a part of the American story. Do not let the Disney version of our history be the one that is paramount."
He said people need to do more than "call out the obvious hatred and bigotry that we see everywhere, including the Oval Office."
Blacks are an important Democratic Party voting bloc, possibly the single most important constituency on the road to the presidential nomination.
Joining the three Democrats in a series of appearances at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Aventura was Bill Weld, a little-known Republican challenger to, and critic of, Trump.
"President Trump is seeming more unhinged almost by the week," Weld, a former Massachusetts governor, said.
Speaking to reporters after he left the stage, Weld said he has no doubt the president is a racist. "Completely. He's a fervent, very obvious racist."
Weld said Trump has "got almost blood on his hands from recent events and I think very reprehensible, and so it's time for us to say to him what he has said to others, which is we wish you would go back to where you came from," a past that includes discriminating against potential minority tenants years ago in New York City, bankruptcies and "judging beauty contests for a profession and going to parties with Jeffrey Epstein with young girls _ all of which he has done and which he cannot deny."
Booker, Buttigieg and Sanders are all struggling to gain traction among black voters; multiple public opinion polls show black voters favor former Vice President Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination.
A nationwide Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday found 47% of black Democrats support Biden for the nomination. Sanders has 16%, Buttigieg 1% and Booker less than 1%.
Among all Democrats, Biden is the choice of 32%, Sanders 14%; Buttigieg 5%; and Booker 2%.
If other Democrats can't gain traction and diminish Biden's lead among black voters, it would be next-to-impossible for anyone else to win the party's nomination. An early 2020 test will be South Carolina. It's the fourth state holding a primary or caucus and three out of five Democrats in the state are black.
Booker, a U.S. senator from New Jersey and former mayor of Newark, was the only black candidate scheduled to appear in Aventura on Thursday.
Buttigieg, the major of South Bend, Ind., has had a difficult time generating interest among black voters, and he faced larger hurdles after one of his city's white police officers killed a black resident in June. He has proposed a Douglass Plan to end systemic racism, named after abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, failed to attract support from black voters during his 2016 presidential campaign, a pattern that's repeating in 2020. His previous 2016 campaign operation was criticized for a lack of diversity, something that's changed in his current campaign.
The candidates appearing before the black journalists' association on Thursday have a tricky path to navigate. They need to boost themselves, while at the same time bringing down Biden.
At the same time, they want to avoid the criticism from many analysts and Democratic activists who faulted candidates for spending so much time during the second round of debates last month attacking each other and former President Barack Obama rather than concentrating their fire on Trump.
The president is deeply unpopular among black voters. The Morning Consult/Politico national tracking poll from Aug. 5-7 showed 40% of registered voters approved of Trump's performance as president and 56% disapproved. Among black voters, 11% approved and 83% disapproved.
The National Association of Black Journalists said in a statement that the candidates appearing at Thursday's forum "have a chance to share critical information to those most connected to black voters _ black journalists."
Susan Glover, the group's president, said "Now more than ever, it is important for black people and people of color to understand how the 2020 election will impact our communities."
National conventions leading up to presidential election years are frequent stops for presidential candidates. In June, eight Democratic candidates appeared at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.
Last month, 10 Democrats and Weld appeared before the NAACP attracted 10 Democrats plus Weld, and nine went to the National Urban League.
