EXCLUSIVE: If President Biden As he prepares for a weekend packed with black voters in the key battleground states of Georgia and Michigan, a high-profile black Republican politician is accusing the president of “pandering” in the election year.
“It's always pandering,” Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida argued in a national digital exclusive interview with Fox News. “This is what Democrats do, especially in election years. You never see them in the black community until it's time to actually get votes, and they show up and want to make speeches.”
The president will take part in an event in Georgia on Saturday that has been a focus of his re-election campaign on “focusing on engaging black voters,” before delivering the opening address on Sunday morning – in his official capacity as president – at Morehouse College, a renowned historical building. Black men's liberal arts college in Atlanta.
Biden will meet with small business owners in Detroit later Sunday before delivering a speech to the NAACP that evening in Michigan.
The president's reelection team emphasized in an email message that “no administration has delivered as well for Black America as President Biden and Vice President Harris.”
WATCH: BLACK VOTERS WEIGH IN FOX NEWS ON THE PRESIDENT'S PERFORMANCE
President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at Pullman Yards on March 9, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)
“This campaign will not take any voter for granted,” Trey Baker, a senior adviser to the Biden campaign, wrote in the memo. “We are not and will not invade these communities at the last minute waiting for their vote.”
But a slew of polls this spring — both nationally and in key swing states — have indicated that Trump has gained support from black voters at Biden's expense.
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Biden's campaign memo highlighted that “while the unemployment rate for Black people skyrocketed under Trump, the Biden-Harris administration has helped create more than 2.5 million jobs for Black workers, resulting in record low Black unemployment – Black business ownership is also growing at the fastest pace in recent years. 30 years.”
But Donalds pointed to persistent inflation in his interview with Fox News Digital.
“I think his problem with black voters in particular, but with all voters, is that his agenda is worthless. It's terrible. Inflation is crippling so many families. It has destroyed purchasing power,” Donalds emphasized.
Republican Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, a supporter and ally of former President Donald Trump, speaks at a news conference across the street from the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse where Trial is on trial, on May 14, 2024, in New York. AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah) (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Donald also pointed to what he called the country's “wide-open border, which is strangling every major city in America, squeezing their budgets and overwhelming resources.”
And he claimed that Biden is “trying to find ways to repair the damage. But speeches do not repair the damage. The actual policy and implementation is what solves things.”
Donalds was interviewed Friday ahead of his trip to New Hampshire to headline the state GOP's big fundraising dinner.
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Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who later served as Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, won 40% of the vote in New Hampshire's presidential primary in January. Haley, the last candidate to oppose Trump in the race for the Republican Party nomination, ended her campaign in early March.
But more than two months after dropping out, zombie candidate Haley continues to gain significant support in the Republican party primaries, at Trump's expense.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley speaks during a rally during the District of Columbia Republican presidential primary at the Madison Hotel in Washington, DC, on Friday, March 1, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Donalds said his message to New Hampshire Republicans is: “It's time to come together. It's time to focus on being one party…I think every Republican in our country, no matter which side of the party he stands on understands that Joe Biden is the master of disasters and must be defeated if our country is to survive.”
“I'm confident that by the time we get to the November election, those voters will come home and vote Republican. They will vote for Donald Trump,” Donalds predicted.
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Donalds, a Trump ally and supporter in the House of Representatives, is considered among the former president's shortlist for the 2024 running mate.
The two-term congressman has long said he would serve as a running mate if Trump asked him to.
But because both Donalds and Trump call Florida home, residency could be an issue.
A common interpretation of a clause in Article II, Section I of the United States Constitution is that if the presidential and vice presidential candidates are from the same state, voters from that state cannot vote for both candidates. With 30 electoral votes at stake in Florida, this could be a problem.
When asked what would happen if he were named as the Republican Party's vice presidential candidate, Donalds said, “We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. It's something we should definitely think about. When you get there, you get there, and you make those decisions accordingly. There are probably ways to work that out.”
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) shakes hands with former President Donald Trump during the Moms for Liberty national summit on June 30, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Donalds was interviewed a few days after Trump suggested at a closed-door fundraiser in New York City that if Donalds were to run for governor of Florida in 2026 in the race to succeed term-limited Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, he “has many friends in the race.”
Donalds told Fox News: “I've thought about it. I don't really rule anything out,”
“It's really cool that people back home in Florida are looking at me as the next governor of the state. It's really an honor. It's honestly surreal to think about it because I'm 45 and my journey through politics has been very fruitful Donalds said. “It's really humbling and an honor, but I'm just focusing on the job I have.”
Donald's trip to New Hampshire – where the first presidential primaries in the race for the Republican nomination are taking place – is also leading to some speculation that he may have some national ambitions in four years.
“I think it's pretty cool. You never know. Politics is a funny business. Things can change very, very quickly,” he said when asked about a possible White House election campaign in 2028. “People have been asking me all the time the future asked. So why don't you go to New Hampshire, especially if they ask you to come.”
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more on our Fox News Digital election hub.
