His wife had to pass him her phone so he could see that he had been speaking for too long.
“Things happen when you’re really worn out,” said Reddick, 72. “And when I saw Biden walk on the stage, I said, they worked him too hard. He needed rest. So for me, it is one failed night in many respects, but not in all respects.”
Reddick and the Rev. W. Franklyn Richardson, chairman of the Conference of National Black Churches, said they don’t think the Hamas-Israel war and their concerns about its effect on the people of Gaza will be a decisive factor in considerations of Biden despite the fact that leaders of several Black denominations and grassroots Black Christians have urged for months that there be a cease-fire or other action to end the conflict.
“I don’t think it’s going to direct the overall outcome of the vote,” said Richardson, who listed contrasts on other priorities between Biden and Trump.
“I think overwhelmingly, the Black community is still aligned with — the Black church, particularly — with President Biden, and it’s on two different bases,” he said. “One is that the African American community recognizes the accomplishments that President Biden has made during his time as president. He made promises to us, and in many ways, those promises have been kept.”
Richardson cited increased access to health care, historic low levels of Black unemployment and Biden’s nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman Supreme Court justice.
“Secondly, where are you going to run to?” he added. “Overwhelmingly, African Americans in our churches don’t support Donald Trump’s style, content or actions,” including “abrasive” ways and comments that are “demeaning to people of color” and social justice positions that “counter our pursuit of our legacy and our heritage.”
Richardson was among the leaders invited to participate in a prayer call Wednesday night in the wake of the debate with an organization focused on voter mobilization and protection.
The Rev. Barbara Williams-Skinner, a core leader of Faiths United to Save Democracy, said her organization hosted “an urgent call to prayer for our troubled and divided nation” that featured Black church leaders and a diverse range of officials of national groups.
But Richardson added he thinks Biden should be praying too — about his next steps.
“President Biden ought to take seriously the possibility that he’s having some failure, that he needs to not just have the Lord come in and speak to him,” Richardson said, referring to a comment the president made in an ABC interview. “But he needs to pray and ask the Lord to help him find his way, and then have the courage to act in faith, to do whatever’s best for the interest of the country.”
This article originally appeared here.
