President Biden made an aggressive push on Wednesday to head off former President Donald J. Trump’s modest gains among Black voters, condemning his Republican opponent as a racist who had lied to Black Americans about what his term in office delivered them.
Speaking alongside Vice President Kamala Harris at a rally in Philadelphia, Mr. Biden pressed home a series of arguments about why Black voters should choose him over Mr. Trump, who has been trying to court Americans of color.
“This is the same guy who wanted to tear-gas you as you peacefully protested George Floyd’s murder,” Mr. Biden told the predominantly Black crowd as he and Ms. Harris announced a national coalition of Black voters working on their behalf. “The same guy who still calls the Central Park Five guilty even though they were exonerated. He’s that landlord who denies housing applications because of the color of your skin.”
Invoking the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, and nodding to Mr. Trump’s remarks about pardoning the rioters, Mr. Biden said: “What do you think would have happened if Black Americans had stormed the Capitol? I don’t think he’d be talking about pardons.”
Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris were making a rare joint appearance at a campaign event as they push urgently to strengthen their support from Black voters, who helped propel them to victory in 2020 but whose lagging enthusiasm now poses a serious risk to their re-election prospects.
The event in Philadelphia — the Democratic stronghold of a must-win battleground state — capped a month of heavy outreach by Mr. Biden to African Americans. Prominent Black Democrats including Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland and Lt. Gov. Austin Davis of Pennsylvania appeared with the president and Ms. Harris on Wednesday at Girard College, a boarding school where a desegregation battle raged for more than a decade in the 1950s and ’60s.